Goodell should drop hammer on Patriots
Even if you believe the not-always-so-forth-coming Bill Belichick and buy his contention the football department has no fingerprints on another video kerfuffle involving the Patriots, it is not enough.
Roger Goodell still needs to drop the hammer.
It’s the optics, silly. After Spygate and Deflategate, the Patriots are like the motorist with points attached to their driver’s license for speeding. Intentional or not, the foot of someone associated with the Patriots got a bit heavy to take them over the speed limit again. Even if this latest snag is proved to be nothing like the sign-stealing Spygate episode in 2007, it’s still a repeat violation of an NFL policy that deserves admonishment, not benefit of the doubt.
Pleading ignorance doesn’t cut it as a defense. Ignorance? The Patriots?
Good, the team immediately turned over the videotapes to the NFL. Nice, the team quickly addressed the issue publicly to get a jump on the blowback. I’ll take Belichick at his word (and hope I’m right) when he declares he’s never seen any of the work by the crew taping for a “Do Your Job” feature on an advance scout for the team’s digital operation – and not trying to record signals from the Bengals sideline that could be used, say, when New England plays Sunday at Cincinnati.
Shoot, if the Patriots are spying on the Bengals (1-12), their issues are way deeper than a two-game losing streak.
But, funny, we haven’t heard a peep yet from the NFL, intimately familiar with the Patriots’ track record.
You’d think the Patriots, for all of their brilliance, intelligence, the smug fan base and their history with NFL suspicion, would know better. Sure, Belichick’s football ops unit is independent of the marketing department, website, ticket sales, sponsorships, community service and other departments, when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of winning or losing football games. But it’s all under the same Patriots banner, even if the video was shot by a crew for Kraft Sports Productions, which produces content for Patriots.com and uses contractors. Crossover is inherent when you’re selling and profiting off the football team owned by Robert Kraft. I mean, Belichick does a weekly film breakdown segment for Patriots.com.
So it’s not like they are completely foreign entities, or that Kraft Sports Productions was in Cleveland filming a scout for Boston College.
The unit was taping during the Browns-Bengals clash on Sunday for the purpose of the Patriots’ organization, with the website falling under that lucrative umbrella. Belichick had to know the scout was being featured because anyone connected to the tight ship that is football ops would have to get a green light to be interviewed for the show. (I still remember the hoops jumped through years ago for clearance to interview then-personnel director Scott Pioli for a USA TODAY feature).
And given what happened in 2007 with Spygate – the Patriots were caught filming Jets sideline signals, resulting in a $500,000 fine for Belichick, a $250,000 fine for the team and the loss of a first-round draft pick – no team in the NFL should be as diligent as the Patriots when it comes to checks and balances for video personnel.
In other words, if you are functioning at an NFL game with a video camera while wearing Patriots gear, there are some ground rules that should have been explained by somebody in that smart organization. In a statement released Monday night, the Patriots maintained they accept “full responsibility” for the incident. Apparently, the team contends, someone wasn’t aware that they violated policy.
Maybe an entrance exam needs to be required before hiring videographers who wear Patriots gear.
First question: Have you ever heard of Spygate?
There’s no reason to jump to the conclusion that Spygate 2.0 has arrived. Unless something really sinister is uncovered by the NFL’s investigation, this isn’t about demanding that Belichick needs to be docked a draft pick again. But it is about the integrity of The Shield that Goodell speaks so passionately about. If there are rules prohibiting filming the sidelines, they were instituted for a reason and if not followed are subjected to a stiff fine. Or worse. Otherwise, why have such rules?
This, too, goes beyond the Patriots. What about the rest of the 31 teams?
If the Patriots get a pass on this, there are a few other NFL teams that could use some extra video.