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The New England Patriots have been the most dominant team in the NFL over the past couple of decades thanks in no small part to the mind of Bill Belichick and the skills of the seemingly immortal Tom Brady.
However, their success hasn’t been without its fair share of controversy, as the team has been accused of cheating on multiple occasions stretching all the way back to 2002 when Marshall Faulk implied New England had previous knowledge of some of the plays the Rams debuted in Super Bowl XXXVI.
A couple of years later, James Harrison accused the team of costing him a chance to play in the Super Bowl when they allegedly stole signs during that year’s AFC Championship Game against the Steelers, and in 2007, the Patriots finally got nailed for illicitly taping a New York Jets practice to pick up on defensive signals (Belichick was fined $500,000 and the franchise was hit with a $250,000 sanction in addition to losing a first-round draft pick).
Of course, you can’t talk about the Patriots and cheating without addressing Deflategate, a case that eventually ended up in federal court after Brady tried (and failed) to get his four-game suspension overturned after people became more invested in PSI than any other time in human history.
On Monday, it looked like we were going to be treated to yet another scandal courtesy of the Patriots after a camera crew was spotted with a scout they sent to Cleveland’s matchup against Cincinnati ahead of their game against the Bengals this weekend.
An official for the Bengals, who were playing at Cleveland Sunday, saw a member of the video crew wearing a Patriots’ shirt and alerted the league, which confiscated the video, according to the source. NFL has video; Patriots say video is a press-box feature of the advance scout.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 9, 2019
During a press conference, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was asked about the development and had this to say.
At the question of it being alleged a Patriots official had a videographer filming the Bengals sideline from the press box on Sunday, Zac Taylor had no comment only saying he was "aware there was an incident" and "the league was investigating it," but had no comment.
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) December 9, 2019
It looked like we were going to be treated to some more juicy Patriots cheating drama, but shortly after Taylor addressed the situation, the air was cleared, as New England was reportedly given permission to use the cameras to follow the scout as part of a documentary and none of the footage taken was used to try to gain a competitive advantage.
Patriots’ advance scout was not filming but being filmed, per a league source. He was being filmed for a feature the team produced called, "Do Your Job." The video crew was credentialed by the Browns to shoot video in the press box and their PR person was aware, per the source
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 9, 2019
Of course, it’s kind of absurd the Patriots would risk getting caught again in order to gain an edge on a 1-12 team that has virtually no shot at topping them and I came across a pretty entertaining response that succinctly summed up the situation with a fantastic analogy.
this is like Jean Georges lurking outside a Guy Fieri restaurant to steal the recipe for Donkey Sauce https://t.co/uDWiQ6ZvWR
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) December 9, 2019
My condolences to everyone who lit their torches and grabbed their pitchforks only to have to swiftly extinguish them and place them back in the shed.