Patriots Caught Illegally Filming The Bengals
Once again the New England Patriots have been caught cheating. The most recent case has to do with a film crew the Patriots hired illegally recording the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline at a game on Sunday, 8, 2019
The Patriots are willing to take full responsibility for this. But head coach, Bill Belichick, has said that it is in no way his or the team staffs’ fault. Instead, Belichick claims that the film crew was simply unaware that what they were doing broke NFL rules.
Permission to film in the press box was granted to the Patriots by the Browns, who were the home team. But New England still failed to inform the Bengals and the NFL that they were going to film at the game.
New England has stated that the film crew, “Do Your Job”, was at the Bengals game in order to videotape a documentary that featured an advanced scout for the Patriots. But is this excuse even valid? Or is this another classic occurrence where the Patriots have been caught cheating?
This Isn’t The First Time The Pats Have Cheated
There have been multiple occurrences where the Patriots have been caught cheating during Belichick’s tenure as head coach. This is not the first time that the Patriots have illegally filmed other teams.
New England was caught illegally recording the Jets’ defensive signals in a game during the 2007 season. This resulted in the league fining Belicheck $500,000. This act also resulted in the Patriots being fined $250,000 and losing a first-round draft pick the following year.
Another infamous occurrence of the Patriots attempts to cheat can be seen by Deflategate. Deflategate refers to when New England deflated 11 of the 12 footballs they used during their win against the Colts in the 2015 AFC Championship game.
Past players of Belichick, Brandon Spikes and Aqib Tali, spoke of how the team routinely falsified injury reports. These examples shed light on the fact that this team is no stranger to breaking or bending the rules.
Is The Pats’ Excuse Valid?
Members of the NFL’s Media, Ian Rapoport and Judy Battista, have reported that the NFL seems to believe the Patriots’ explanation. To the Bengals’ dismay, it is expected that the punishment will in no way be significant.
What are your guys’ thoughts though? Is this another classic occurrence where the Patriots have been caught cheating? Or is their excuse actually valid for once? Depending on what you believe, what should New England’s punishment be?
