NFL Reportedly Found No Link Between Patriots Football Operations and Camera Crew
By Liam McKeone
The NFL has been pretty silent on the public side of things in the weeks after the Bengals reported the Patriots for sending a camera crew to record their sideline ahead of their Week 15 matchup. New England and Bill Belichick adamantly denied the camera crew had anything to do with their football operations, and were sent as a part of a docu-series by the Patriots' production team.
The Washington Post now reports the NFL has found no connection between the camera crew and the football side of things within the organization. From Mark Maske:
"The NFL has found no evidence to this point linking Coach Bill Belichick or others on the New England Patriots’ football staff to the video shot by a crew on behalf of the team showing footage of the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline during a game last month in Cleveland, according to people familiar with the matter."
"The league’s investigation of the latest video incident involving the Patriots is winding down and could be completed as soon as this week, according to those people. They said it remains likely at this point, barring the last-minute uncovering of more damaging evidence, that the NFL will impose penalties consistent with those handed out in recent years in other cases of game-day infractions."
- Washington Post
Maske says the NFL could impose a hefty fine and potentially a penalty relating to the draft picks. This is a pretty weird situation if the NFL indeed has found no connection to the football side of things, and it's hard to predict what the penalty will be. All we know for sure is that New England committed an infraction of some rule by not letting the Bengals or the NFL know their video team was attending the game, but past that, it'll be anyone's guess.