Patriots Expected to Be Disciplined by NFL for Filming Bengals Sideline
By Jerry Trotta
Through Jan.1, the NFL had found no evidence linking the New England Patriots' football staff to the video-taping scandal that saw a team-employed film crew caught recording the Cincinnati Bengals sidelines back in Week 14.
Fast-forwarding to Saturday, insider Ian Rapoport revealed that New England did violate league rules, and that they are expected to receive some form of official discipline.
Sources: The #Patriots did, in fact, commit a game-day violation and they are expected to be disciplined for taping the #Bengals sidelines.. What’s not clear is if there is a link back to football operations, as not all security reports are back to the NFL offices.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 4, 2020
Before investigators can properly rule out any link to the Patriots' football staff, however, the NFL must make sure that all relevant security reports are accounted for. That has not yet happened as of this writing.
At this rate, it seems highly unlikely that a steep punishment will be the outcome here. That would only materialize if the investigation uncovered evidence of an organized effort to gain a competitive on-field advantage. Nobody's doubting the legitimacy of suspicion behind New England's actions, as they themselves admitted wrongdoing, but you simply can't formally penalized an organization by, say, docking high draft picks if there's no proportional concrete evidence.
So, what could a punishment look like? Adam Schefter provided some context for the hotly-debated topic.
A basis for Pats’ discipline.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 4, 2020
Former Cleveland GM Ray Farmer was suspended four games without pay and Browns fined $250K for in-game texting.
ATL loses 5th-round pick, Falcons fined $350k, President Rich McKay suspended from competition committee for piping in crowd noise.
Based on current findings, Schefter notes that the Patriots, at most, could be handed a fine in the $200,000-$400,000 range and have a late-round draft pick withdrawn.
The door is still open for the NFL to find damning evidence, but barring a shocking turn of events, "Spygate 2.0" appears to be nearing a conclusion.