FAA Looking Into Drone Use By Pats (and Other NFL Teams)

shawnrbu

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Jul 14, 2005
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The Land of Fist Pumps
The FAA, when asked about drone use by three teams, said it has been in contact with the Cowboys to “explain the proper procedure for obtaining the necessary exemption.” It plans to reach out to two other teams that used the devices to film their own workouts: the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.
 
It appears teams are filming their own practices.  If the Pats were being accused of filming an opposing team's practices, then it would be all over ESPN.com and there would be a megathread by now. 
 

Section15Box113

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Seems pretty clear in the article that the Patriots are using the drones to film their own practices, not their opponents' practices.

If they were doing the latter, I would have a huge issue with it. Unless you are allowed in to view (and tape) a team's practice, you shouldn't be allowed to use a drone to do so. Big no-no, which actually would impact the competitive balance of the game.

If, however, a team is using a drone to tape its own practices, it's only somewhat different from using a tower-based camera to get an arial view. Just clear it with the FAA so you don't fly too high and hit a 747.

Nothing to see here.
 

soxfan121

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[Al] Davis stayed on the cutting edge of football tactics as the esteemed Dave Anderson detailed in 2000:
When the Jets went to Oakland in 1968, that photo on the Raiders’ wall symbolized the rivalry as well as Coach Weeb Ewbank‘s distrust of Davis. Whenever a helicopter flew anywhere near a Jets practice the week before a game against the Raiders, Ewbank would look up and shake his fist. He just knew Davis had somebody spying on the Jets. On a trip to Oakland, he once suspected a spy as the Jets practiced near a junior college’s high-rise dorm.
”Weeb thought he saw the shape of a person’s head looking down at our practice from one of the windows high in the dorm,” recalled Frank Ramos, then as now the Jets’ public-relations director. ”Weeb sent somebody up there to check, and it turned out that what he thought was a person was really a lamp.”
 
 

Bongorific

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The Cowboys were on ESPN a month ago showing off their drones...which they copied from a Texas college team. (A&M maybe).
Non-story.