It may have been lost since the news of Cam Newton’s signing fell around the same time, but the New England Patriots have been punished for videotaping the Cincinnati Bengals sideline last season.
The penalties included a $ 1.1 million fine, Patriots TV teams were banned from shooting games during the 2020 season and the loss of a third-round pick from 2021.
While the fine and ban on television crews are understandable, the loss of a draft pick is definitely tough. After all, the Patriots are convinced that Kraft Sports Productions videotaped the Bengals’ activity for their “Do Your Job” video series and that football operations were not involved.
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Still, the Patriots will have to proceed without that third assailant in 2021, and Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer believes that is the penalty that “itches” the most for Bill Belichick and company. He explained why in Early edit.
“I believe in the history of the Patriots. I just can’t believe that Bill or anyone else in football operations gets involved in something like this, and that the Patriots are coming soon,” Breer said. “But I think one of the things they tried to do was try to position this as a non-soccer violation, and that’s for me the reason why the draft selection penalty is really relevant here.”
“It’s not just about the loss of capital. If they take away a draft pick from you, it’s basically holding football operations accountable and saying this was a competitive thing. And I think that’s probably why this affects the Patriots more than anything else. And again, I believe in the history of the Patriots, but they should be treated as a repeat offender in a case like this because of their history. “
Between the Spygate and Deflategate controversies, the Patriots clearly didn’t get the benefit of the NFL’s doubt. It is hard to believe that the punishment would have been so harsh if those previous incidents had not occurred.
But even though soccer operations were not involved in the video recording incident, the soccer team was negatively affected. It goes without saying that we shouldn’t expect to see shots of opposing teams in future episodes of “Do Your Job.”
