Spygate II: The Patriots “unknowingly” videotaped Bengals’ coaches on the sideline — and then lied and said that it was a video of a scout — but the video confiscated by the NFL proves them wrong

Tom Brady: Dude, the rules do not apply to us

… why not just put an asterisk after their Super Bowls?

In 2007, the New England Patriots were embroiled in a scandal that was referred to as “Spygate.” Unfortunately, the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, destroyed the evidence before it could be evaluated, saying that they had made their own investigation.

After an uproar ensued about Goodell's conduct, and photos emerged of him with Patriots owner Robert Kraft, the league fined the Patriots $250,000 and Coach Bill Bellichick $500,000 for their elaborate efforts to steal signals and other information from opponents.

And then, there was Deflategate of a few years ago which led to the suspension of quarterback Tom Brady..

However, on Sunday, the Patriots were again caught filming, this time in the press box in Cleveland. When caught, the team yesterday issued a statement saying that they were simply filming a piece about one of their advance scouts that they were going to place on their website.

However, the video was confiscated, and that is not what the video showed. According to The Athletic,

“… the eight-minute video shows a "direct view" of the Bengals sideline and keeps its focus there the entire time, which seems to contradict what the Patriots said in their statement. Although New England admitted that the team's video crew ‘inappropriately filmed the field from the press box,’ the Patriots also added that ‘the sole purpose of the filming was to provide an illustration of an advance scout at work on the road’.”

John Breech, “Illegal Patriots video reportedly shows Bengals coaching signals, 

cameraman wanted to delete footage,” CBS Sports, Dec. 10, 2019

NFL.com confirmed that the video shows the coaches for the Bengals, whom the Patriots play on Sunday, giving hand signals to their team. The video was approximately eight minutes long, and nothing on it focused on the advance scout.

An ESPN reporter tweeted a series of messages about the situation,

A source tells me a Bengals employee was watching the videographer/cameraman who identified himself as a Robert Kraft employee. The Bengals employee kept an eye on that monitor, the shot was of the Bengals coaches and staff on the sidelines for the entire 1st quarter.

[T]he Bengals employee flagged media relations. Bengals security then interviewed the Kraft videographer. This was also taped. The cameraman asked if they could just delete the footage and it all be forgotten per sources.

Sources say there was a guy interviewing a Patriots pro scout before the game but that was over when the game started.
Dianna
@diannaESPN

[Three separate tweets]

According to CBS, the NFL will have to investigate this further … and this time, not destroy the evidence,

[Paul Dehner Jr. of TheAthletic.com] reports that the Patriots representative who had the camera captured the images in plain sight, sitting directly in front of a Bengals representative.

The Patriots have admitted that their production crew “inappropriately filmed the field from the press box,” but the team insists that the violation was unintentional and that there was no intention to use the footage for any purpose other than the “Do Your Job” item on the duties of an advance scout.

If the video shows what Dehner says it shows, the NFL can’t properly close the book on this one until it explores fully and completely any and all electronic or other communications between the members of the video crew and others in the organization. Like the text message that became so relevant to #DeflateGate, texts, emails, and/or phone records will show that the video crew had no connection whatsoever to the football operations, or otherwise.

John Breech, CBS Sports, Dec. 10, 2019

And, this is why it is being referred to as “Spygate II.”