New York Jets: New England Patriots got caught cheating once again

The New England Patriots were reportedly caught cheating once again and it wasn’t vs the New York Jets. Here are all the details.

Stop me if you have heard this before, but the New England Patriots were caught cheating once again. At least it wasn’t against the New York Jets.

On Monday evening during Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor’s press conference he was asked about an interesting topic that raised some eyebrows around the league.

Apparently a New England Patriots videographer was caught filming the Cincinnati Bengals sideline from the press box on Sunday. The Bengals are “aware there was an incident and the league is investigating it.”

If this is proven true, this wouldn’t be the first time the Patriots have been caught filming things they aren’t supposed to.

Over a decade ago during the 2007 season, the Patriots were punished by the NFL for videotaping the New York Jets defensive signals from an unauthorized location.

After a thorough investigation, the Patriots were fined over $750,000 (Bill Belichick for $500K, the Patriots as a team for $250K). On top of the fines, the team also forfeited the 31st overall pick in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft.

You would think the Patriots learned their lesson, apparently not.

Although according to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, the Patriots seemingly have a convenient excuse for all of this.

The team sent a video crew to shoot an in-house documentary series “Do Your Job” in which they’d cover the day-to-day operations of a pro scout. The crew was cleared by the Cleveland Browns, but wasn’t approved by the NFL or the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Patriots were seen setting up a tripod and filming the Bengals sideline. For those who don’t know, the Bengals and New England play this upcoming Sunday.

Cincinnati has already reported this to the league and NFL security and is allowing the investigation to take its course.

***UPDATE*** (12-9-19, 7:00 p.m. ET)

Per ESPN’s Dianna Russini, the Patriots videographer asked, “if they could just delete the footage and it all be forgotten.”

If that doesn’t sound guilty I’m not sure what does.

***UPDATE*** (12-10-19, 9:24 a.m. ET)

Per John Breech of CBS Sports, during the Spygate investigation, the NFL found out that the New England Patriots had excuses ready in case they were caught. How does that pertain to our current predicament?

Well, one of the specific excuses that they had in their back pocket for situations was, “to tell whoever catches you that you’re filming quarterbacks or kickers or just grabbing footage for a team show.”

Interestingly enough the Patriots admitted in a press release that the film crew watching the Bengals sideline “inappropriately filmed the field from the press box”. Also in that statement, the Patriots claimed all of this was part of a docu-series.

Here’s the full statement below:

Statement from the New England Patriots. pic.twitter.com/rhXdwVvnr8

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) December 10, 2019

Ultimately what is on the tape will determine where this goes. As Breer notes, if this is simple b-roll this story will die. Although on the other side of the coin, if New England was filming signals or team substitutions this could be another chapter in the long history of the Patriots attempting to cheat.