2020 Pats: Bengals Coach Implies Patriots Taping Play Signals

Gash Prex

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Apr 18, 2002
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Here is some interesting stuff from Matt Chatham on twitter. I know he is a Pats honk but he is knowledgeable and he did play in the NFL.
Anyway he looked at tape of the Bengals to see if anyone looked at the sidelines to get signals and saw no signs of it.
Quick somebody tell Ernie
 

Norm Siebern

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I am somehow just finding out about this whole scandal;. I think I should consider it a blessing.
I'm with you. Seriously, this is a thing? the Patriots have carved out so much permanent space in the heads of NFL fans that they should be paying squatting rights. Stalin wasn't this paranoid about the west during the Cold War.
 

BusRaker

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It's pretty obvious to me that a spy from Gang Green applied for the video assistant gig, aimed the camera at the sidelines, and then tipped off the Bengals
 

Super Nomario

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It's pretty obvious to me that a spy from Gang Green applied for the video assistant gig, aimed the camera at the sidelines, and then tipped off the Bengals
Caserio oversees the scouting department and he wants to quit anyway, so he's sabotaging the team on his way out the door.
 

lexrageorge

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Both Sharpe and Whitlock have had it in for Belichick for years. But when even Tony Dungy refuses to join the peanut gallery, it's a good sign that this whole kerfuffle will blow over soon enough.
 

Ed Hillel

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Though note the usage of “now,” a nice reminder that Belichick never beat him fair and square.
 

amRadio

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Funny that Dungy acts like the entire world doesn't know he also stole signs during that same era. I believe Marty Schottenheimer credits Dungy with teaching him better sign stealing methods. At least he was good enough to speak some reality among all the non-sense out there right now. This sports media culture where we pretend blind and bias speculation is "sports analysis" is getting very old to me. Something about the way the media does sports in the social media era is starting to turn me away from sports, a little bit. Mostly just football and basketball right now though.
 

DJnVa

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You guys are really slow.

Jeff Howe with more info:
https://theathletic.com/1450435/2019/12/10/heres-how-the-patriots-bengals-video-drama-unfolded-now-the-nfl-must-decide-on-potential-discipline/
The filming began last week, with a three-person team following the scout on a daily basis to detail his responsibilities. The team included a full-time producer and two independent contractors — an audio and video technician — who were locally based.
Locally means New England here. But it was not the normal crew, outside of the producer.

After interviewing the scout before the game, the production crew shot B-roll — alternative video footage that airs over an interview — during the game in the press box. Part of that in-game B-roll included video of the Bengals’ sideline. By rule, NFL teams are not allowed to shoot video of coaches on the sideline during games
The Patriots’ video crew was credentialed through the Browns for the game, and their work in the press box was conspicuous, catching the attention of a Bengals staff member. The producer, who was wearing Boston Bruins gear, set up a fixed video camera near the Patriots scout, and the camera was connected to a monitor, which showed the footage in real time. Anyone in proximity to the monitor could have seen what the camera was shooting.
A FIXED video camera. Fixed.

And prior to the crew’s trip to Cleveland, the team should have had a protocol in place to inform the crew of the league rules that prohibit teams from shooting sideline video. The producer didn’t recognize that rule, in part because Kraft Sports Productions is granted privileged video access behind the Patriots’ bench during games. (NFL Films and the broadcasting network are the only other two crews allowed behind their bench during games.) The producer didn’t recognize their preferred game-day access was restricted solely to the Patriots bench and not to other teams.
 

Mooch

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Whitlock is begging the question. "The Patriots are guilty of cheating because they are cheaters!"
This tempest in a teapot is the ultimate Rorschach test about NFL fandom. Pats haters see what they want to see, no matter how innocuous the details actually are. It says WAY more about them that it does about Patriots fans.
 

Ed Hillel

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Completely gone from ESPN. It will fire back up after BB’s presser for a minute, but this does not have the feel of something likely to blow up.
 

RedOctober3829

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I watched the opening half hour of Get Up this morning and it didn't even get mentioned until like 8:30 or so. Ryan Clark and Greenberg both thought there was no intentional cheating. Dominique Foxworth said his track record makes it hard to give them the benefit of the doubt.
 

CoffeeNerdness

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Total dud. There will be a monetary fine and a lifetime of having to listen to NFL mouth breathers say "but what about the time the sent spies into the locker room to film the Bengals game plan!!!!'
 

j44thor

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NFL owe Pats a thank you as no one has mentioned the worst officiated game of the 2019 season for 36hrs now.
 

Mystic Merlin

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Total dud. There will be a monetary fine and a lifetime of having to listen to NFL mouth breathers say "but what about the time the sent spies into the locker room to film the Bengals game plan!!!!'
People still cite the mythical taping of the Rams walkthrough, Marty Hurney’s fever dream detailed on some radio segment (I couldn’t even tell you the particulars at this point), and general, sporadic intimations about ‘stories I know/have heard about what they’ve been up to.’

What actually happened by proof of evidence is irrelevant to that cohort. You’re out there trying to prove negatives, and sometimes not even specific negatives.

My anecdotal impression from talking to non Patriots fans at work who follow the league - admittedly these aren’t people who subscribe to the Shannon Sharpe school - is that nobody cares/barely noticed the story.
 

shawnrbu

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BB just needs to deftly handle heavy hitters like Byron Barnett and Dan Hausle during the presser today and we might be in the clear. On Monday night, I was anticipating another walkoff Wednesday press conference.
 

Al Zarilla

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That man is still so passive-aggressive when it comes to the Pats. Love it every time Harrison sneaks a poke at him on TV.
I got caught completely by surprise when Rodney got that job. Guess I’d never heard him say anything except when he was crying after SB38. Since then, A Football Life was made about him. He is great, so spot-on. Off topic here.
 

cornwalls@6

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I have a fair number of friends who root for other teams/dislike the Pats. I haven't received one text or call ripping them about this. And in recent years, it's been much more stuff like this is the end of the dynasty, or Brady's washed up, etc. I think every narrative reaches it's fatigue point, the cheatin' Patriots one feels like it peaked with deflate-gate. The usual media idiots will likely hump it for a couple more days, then move on to whatever other smoking hot take stories come up.
 

CoffeeNerdness

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People still cite the mythical taping of the Rams walkthrough, Marty Hurney’s fever dream detailed on some radio segment (I couldn’t even tell you the particulars at this point), and general, sporadic intimations about ‘stories I know/have heard about what they’ve been up to.’

What actually happened by proof of evidence is irrelevant to that cohort. You’re out there trying to prove negatives, and sometimes not even specific negatives.

My anecdotal impression from talking to non Patriots fans at work who follow the league - admittedly these aren’t people who subscribe to the Shannon Sharpe school - is that nobody cares/barely noticed the story.
Reddit threads on this subject have a 4 to 1 comment ratio on the negative "they filmed the Bengals sidelines story" versus the "NFL is inclined to believe the Pats" stories.
 

Hoya81

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I have a fair number of friends who root for other teams/dislike the Pats. I haven't received one text or call ripping them about this. And in recent years, it's been much more stuff like this is the end of the dynasty, or Brady's washed up, etc. I think every narrative reaches it's fatigue point, the cheatin' Patriots one feels like it peaked with deflate-gate. The usual media idiots will likely hump it for a couple more days, then move on to whatever other smoking hot take stories come up.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Deadspin no longer being available to signal boost sports scandals has impacted the coverage somewhat, especially with their fondness for anti-Pats takes.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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The better story is "Spygate 2." People want to believe it. You don't need to be a Patriots hater to want the better story to be true. We all do this.

I'm hardly a Saints hater, but I bet if you asked me questions about Bounty-gate I would give answers that make Saints fans furious. You see a snippet, it's sensational, and it becomes what you remember.

The Patriots are fortunate that they had a lot going in their favor this time around at least so far. There was no breathless "the balls are 2 pounds under" tweets. The fact that this was a documentary crew got out there fast, likely before anyone even had awareness of the story. It's the Bengals. (If the documentary had been filmed in Baltimore or Kansas City I think this story would have been different.)

Also, deflategate and spygate had a level of facial plausibility to them that this one simply does not have. It was a credentialed b-roll film crew that did their thing in the open and was doing a puff piece for the internet.

The truth is not in fashion these days, and doesn't always matter at the league offices, but the good news here so far is that the truth is actually believable and the hurdles you need to jump through to make it nefarious require a bit of energy. So far. These fucking stories have twists and turns sometimes. I also think that while people like stories of the Patriots being cheaters there is also some subliminal appeal to the idea of the Patriots being stupid and the team that usually has all the details covered fucked something up. So, while it's not as satisfying as cheat-riots, dumb Patriots get big fine for not dotting the is and crossing the ts when they should know better than anyone is still a story that throws something appealing to the masses. Not red meat. But, like, whatever -- chicken.

Incidentally, just for kicks I was looking at the Browns version of the documentary productions for their website. (Why the Browns? Well, because I meant to search for what the Bengals had since that would be more relevant, but for some reason, my mind went to the other orange Ohio team and before I realized the mistake I had already watched some of their videos on their website.) Anyway, there are plenty of images of the other team's sidelines during games in there. Not focused on the sidelines, but in the background, and I only looked at like 5 minutes of stuff. I think it was mostly from Browns cameras too not from NFL films or from the television broadcast. So, I think there's at least a chance that there are some production crews out there that do this stuff for the teams that are thinking in this morning, "jeez, we don't do sideline b-roll, but I'm not sure we're always being as careful as we're supposed to be."
 

Al Zarilla

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NFL Network had Judy Battista, Tom Rappaport and one other guy on at 11:05 or so Eastern from the hotel in Texas where the owners meetings are going on. Judy, main spokesperson, said, paraphrasing, “the consensus is that the filming is not a competitive issue, believing the Patriots that it was strictly for the Do Your Job video.” Any punishment would be light and maybe even today.
 

BigSoxFan

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NFL Network had Judy Battista, Tom Rappaport and one other guy on at 11:05 or so Eastern from the hotel in Texas where the owners meetings are going on. Judy, main spokesperson, said, paraphrasing, “the consensus is that the filming is not a competitive issue, believing the Patriots that it was strictly for the Do Your Job video.” Any punishment would be light and maybe even today.
Great. When does Belichick get re-instated from his lifetime ban?
 

E5 Yaz

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NFL Network had Judy Battista, Tom Rappaport and one other guy on at 11:05 or so Eastern from the hotel in Texas where the owners meetings are going on. Judy, main spokesperson, said, paraphrasing, “the consensus is that the filming is not a competitive issue, believing the Patriots that it was strictly for the Do Your Job video.” Any punishment would be light and maybe even today.
This guy?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEZqys5Rc-M
 

Mooch

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NFL's investigation of the Patriots' video was not completed as of this morning so no determination yet on possible penalty. League's attitude that this does not rise to the level of a Spygate-like infraction does not seem to have changed as of this morning.
 

lexrageorge

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Yeah, this will all blow over and the Patriots and their fans will have the last laugh
So what if some random guy on CBS Sports is an idiot? Honestly, shouldn't matter. Shannon Sharpe and Whitlock get paid to say stupid stuff, but such is life.

The story doesn't even show up on the front page of nfl.com, and ESPN's NFL page just has one line citing Belichick's comments.

All that matters to Pats fans is that there are no suspensions or docking of draft picks. And as of now no-one is talking about either event happening.