The Patriots admitted to breaking rules, just not on purpose.
New England released a statement Monday night saying it violated NFL policy when its video crew filmed the field from the press box during the Bengals-Browns game in Cleveland this past Sunday — but it was unintentional. They also failed to tell the Bengals about the film crew, which was there to film a feature on the team’s scouting department.
“While we sought and were granted credentialed access from the Cleveland Browns for the video crew, our failure to inform the Bengals and the League was an unintended oversight,” the Patriots said in the statement. “In addition to filming the scout, the production crew — without specific knowledge of League rules — inappropriately filmed the field from the press box. The sole purpose of the filming was to provide an illustration of an advance scout at work on the road. There was no intention of using the footage for any other purpose.”
The statement was in response to an NFL investigation after a Bengals official witnessed a video crew member filming while wearing a Patriots shirt in the press box and alerted the NFL, which confiscated the video according to ESPN.
In the statement, the Patriots said their content team has produced a behind-the-scenes feature series on various departments the organization called “Do Your Job.” New England admitted that the video crew, which included independent contractors who shot the video, unknowingly violated a league policy by filming the field and sideline from the press box. It noted that the Patriots’ football staff had “no involvement with the planning, filming or creative decisions” made during the filming.
“You know, evidently this is our production people on the TV show that were there. We have nothing to do with anything they produce,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Monday on WEEI. “I’ve never even seen their tapes. This is something we had 100 percent nothing to do with.”
Of course, the Patriots hardly have earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to alleged espionage since Belichick’s team was found guilty of filming the Jets’ defensive coaching signals from an unauthorized location during a game in September 2007. Belichick was fined $500,000, the organization was docked an additional $250,000 and the Pats had to forfeit a first-round draft pick (31st overall).
The Rams, then still in St. Louis, also accused the Patriots of illegally filming a walk-through practice ahead of Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. And Brady was suspended without pay for four games in 2015 for his involvement in and knowledge of Patriots employees deflating footballs and for failing to cooperate with league investigators.
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