Update:
The NFL issued the following statement regarding recent reports that the Patriots are likely to be disciplined for the videotaping incident.
“The investigation is ongoing and there has been no discussion of any potential discipline. Any suggestion of potential discipline or a timeline on an announcement is pure speculation.”
Adam Schefter reports that the Patriots are expected to be disciplined for the acknowledged gameday video violations during the game between the Browns and Bengals.
According to Schefter, discipline from the NFL is expected to be handed down in the next two weeks once all security reports have been received by the league.
Ian Rapoport confirms the news and adds that it remains to be seen whether a link between the video department and football operations has been made.
Earlier in the week, Mark Maske of Washington Post reported that the NFL has found no evidence up to this point linking Patriots HC Bill Belichick or others from the team’s football staff to the video shot by the team’s crew last month.
Per Maske, the expectation right now is that the NFL will impose penalties consistent with those handed out in recent years in other cases of game-day infractions, barring any new evidence surfacing.
Maske suggested New England could be looking at a “fine in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly the loss or reduction in value of a draft pick.”
The Patriots claim an independent crew filming an episode of a documentary for the team’s media were unaware of the NFL’s sideline video policy.
Jay Glazer of FOX Sports obtained and aired footage of the incident between Bengals’ security and the Patriots’ employee.
Belichick has maintained in multiple media availabilities that the football side “100 percent have zero involvement in this.”
The Patriots notified the Browns, Cincinnati’s opponent that week, that they would have a crew in the press box, but did not alert the league or the Bengals. Concerned Bengals employees flagged NFL security after seeing the crew videotaping the sideline for the entire first quarter and the tape was confiscated.
We’ll have more regarding the Patriots videotaping situation as the news is available.
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