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The New England Patriots suspended the videographer who filmed the Cincinnati Bengalsâ sideline during last weekâs game against the Cleveland Browns, a source told the Boston Globeâs Ben Volin and Katie McInerney.
Some of the footage shot by Dave Mondillo, a longtime full-time employee of Kraft Sports and Entertainment, was obtained and released by Jay Glazer of FOX Sports on Sunday.
This is awful if he truly was a long time employee. That said I trust little that Volin has to say.
I know the guy who did this, itâs a mistake, he is too straight lace a guy to do this. Me? I film it and love it. This guy doesnât even if told to. An honest mistake
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This one is easier to readâŚ
I finally watched the Jay Glazer tape, and those Videographers do themselves no good by offering to erase the chip.
That sounds too much like destroying evidence.
From the wonderful law professor and SI contributor, Michael McCann.
Video Showing Patriotsâ Footage of Bengalsâ Sidelines Looks Bad, But Itâs Up to the NFL to Do Something
Even with the video obtained by FOXâs Jay Glazer, thereâs more reasons than not for the NFL to believe the Patriotsâ side of the story when it comes to footage surreptitiously taped of the Bengalsâ sidelines. But the league can still punish the franchise.
7 HOURS AGO
Did a videographer assigned to the Patriots.comâs web series, Do Your Job , make an innocent mistake while filming the Bengalsâ sideline during the teamâs Dec. 8 game against the Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium ⌠or was the videographer surreptitiously attempting to supply New England with a competitive advantage ahead of the teamâs game against Cincinnati in Week 15?
NFL commissioner Roger Goodellâs answer to this question will dictate the degree to which the league punishes the Patriots, who defeated the Bengals 34-13.
Earlier on Sunday, FOXâs Jay Glazer shared an eight-minute video containing audio of a person identified as the Do Your Job videographer interacting with a member of the Cincinnati security staff. The security official had detected the videographer violating the Game Operations Manual (âmanualâ)âa league document that contains rules designed to promote fair play and adopts policies that threaten to punish teams for undermining the competitive aspects of games. Some of the manualâs rules pertain to the use of recording devices, which are forbidden from operating in the coachesâ booth, on the field or in the locker room during the game. The manual further bars recordings of signals by coaches from the press box and from other designated areas.
The Patriots fully admit that the videographer, and by extension the production crew, were in the wrong by recording the field and sideline from the press box. However, the team insists this was an innocent mistake that furnished no competitive advantage to Patriots coaches.
In a statement released on Dec. 9, the team explains that a three-person video crew for Do Your Job was tasked with capturing video of a Patriots advanced scout, and that the video would show the scout during a regular-season game. Do Your Job is a web series that illuminates the ins-and-outs of football operations, including with respect to the day-to-day activities of scouts, equipment staff, dietitians and others who work âbehind the scenes.â The show is produced by a content and production team and, according to the Patriots, is completely independent of New England football operations.
New England Patriots@Patriots
Statement from the New England Patriots.
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The producers âsought and were granted credentialed access from the Cleveland Brownsâ to film the video of the scout but forgot to inform the Bengals and the leagueâand that led to a testy exchange between the Cincinnati security official and the videographer.
FOX SPORTS EXCLUSIVE: @JayGlazer reveals footage of Patriots filming Bengals.
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After reviewing some of the recorded video, the official asks in disbelief, âAnd this is a piece youâre filming on your advanced scout?â When the videographer replies, âYeah,â the official mockingly retorts âyeah, come on guys.â
The official then points out that he âdidnât see the advanced scout in the footage.â In other words, the videographerâs explanationâthat he was supposed to film the advanced scout engaged in scoutingâdidnât seem to match up with the video. The videographer then acknowledges that the advanced scout wasnât in the video, but the videographer assures that he was simply âtrying to get some field perspective.â He adds, âthatâs my bad.â
The official didnât find the videographerâs second explanation convincing since the recording didnât show the field. It instead showed the Bengals sideline and coaches.
Aware of the problem, the videographer seems to panic and plead âno no, weâll delete that.â The offer to delete prompted the official to ask, âThatâs why you were thinking you could take that?â The videographer then pleads ignorance that he âdidnât knowâ that he couldnât record the sideline from the press box. The official was shocked that the videographer didnât know that. The videographer then again offered to delete the video but that prompted the Bengals official to laugh and say, âthe damage is done, my friend.â
Reasons for the league to view the recording as an innocent mistake
There are a number of reasons why the NFL could regard the recording as a fairly minor transgression.
First, the Patriotsâ narrativeâthat the production crew made an innocent mistakeâisnât contradicted by known evidence. You might not believe the videographer whose voice is captured in Glazerâs recording. And you might not trust the Patriotsâ public relations staff. Thatâs fine. But there isnât actual evidence that proves they are lying. At this stage, to believe that the Patriots are using a web series to engage in clandestine recording activities requires a departure from known facts and a reliance on conjecture and guesswork.
Second, the production crew didnât behave as if the filming was a covert operation. The crew requested permission from the Browns and recorded the video in plain sight. As far as we know, there were no secret cameras or disguised videographers. If the Patriots wanted to secretly record Bengals coaches on the sideline, there probably were far more effective strategies than using a Patriots.com Do Your Job production team to record from a very visible location, the press box.
Third, the Patriotsâ statement notes that the video crew included independent contractors, rather than employees. The Patriots no doubt mentioned that point to create distance between the mistake and the organization. However, the point could also help to explain what happened. Itâs possible the independent contractors were not as well versed in NFL recording rules as are full-time Patriots employees. Independent contractors can be hired for all sorts of video jobs, including for companies that operate in different industries.
Being an independent contractor is not an excuse, of course. Independent contractors should have known better or been educated by their supervisors (or not been hired in the first place). This might explain why the videographer seemed worried. To that end, the Patriots have reportedly suspended the videographer and fired producer Dave Mondillo, a longtime employee of Kraft Sports and Entertainment. Still, carelessly or unreasonably not knowing rules is generally viewed as less blameworthy than intentionally breaking rules.
Fourth, the Patriots attempted to mitigate the transgression by disclosing what happened. The game operations manual imposes a âduty to discloseâ on teams to âpromptly report any actual or suspected competitive violations to Troy Vincent, Executive Vice President for Football Operations.â Such a report âshould include both a detailed explanation describing the violation and why it occurred, and a detailed statement of corrective action taken by the club to ensure that the violation does not occur again.â The manual stresses that a âfailure to report an actual or suspected violation shall be considered conduct detrimental to the League and will subject the offending club and responsible individual(s) to appropriate discipline.â
Fifth, Glazerâs video appears to be an excerpt of a longer recording. Chances are, the clip aired by Fox is the most newsworthy excerptâitâs the portion most likely to interest viewers and go viral on social media. However, watching the entire recording might provide a different context and understanding.
Finally, media have reported that the video taken by the Do Your Job crew didnât share any great intel and is similar to what was shown on the broadcast. The lack of apparent damage should make it less likely the NFL imposes a substantial penalty on the Patriots.
Reasons for the league to view the recording as a big deal
There are also several reasons why the NFL might severely punish the Patriots.
First, the Patriots have already gotten into trouble for unauthorized recordings. The league could reason that the team didnât learn its lesson the first time around and should thus be punished severely this time around.
In 2007, the Patriots were implicated in the controversy that became known as Spygate. A Patriots video assistant had videotaped New York Jets defensive coaches sending signals to players during a game. He had done so from a position within the stadium where such recordings were disallowed. The NFL imposed a severe penalty on the Patriots, stripping the franchise of a first-round pick and fining it $250,000. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who was the coach then and now, was fined $500,000.
Yet the NFL might regard Spygate as different and worse than the Bengals incident. Sypgate involved a video assistant who worked in football operations whereas the Bengals incident involved a videographer who, according to the Patriots, has nothing to do with football operations.
As a second reason to severely punish the Patriots, some in the NFL might find it hard to give the Patriots the benefit of the doubt. Along those lines, Goodell and Vincent clearly viewed the Patriots with distrust in a more recent controversy, Deflategate. Even though acclaimed scientists found the NFLâs air pressure tampering theory to defy basic concepts of physics, the NFL seemed convinced that the Patriots âmust haveâ done something wrong.
Here, NFL officials could regard the videographer hastily offering to delete the video as spoliation of evidence, which refers to the unlawful act of trying to destroy evidence. To be sure, the videographer would argue that he simply panicked since he didnât want to get in trouble with the Patriots and didnât want to get the Patriots in trouble with the league, but the NFL could view his remarks more critically.
Third, while the Patriots have acknowledged the production crew erred, owning up to an error doesnât extinguish the need for a punishment. Along those lines, impermissible recordings of a coaching staff could be viewed as a form of misappropriation of trade secrets. Such secrets are valuable and confidential pieces of information that help businesses, including NFL franchises, gain competitive advantages over rivals. Coaches signals are a type of trade secret.
In a different setting, the Bengals could even consider suing the Patriots for trade secrets misappropriation. However, NFL teams contractually agree to not sue one another. They also agree to resolve differences through league-governed grievance procedures.
To that end, teams assent to follow the NFLâs constitution and bylaws. Article VIII, Section 8.13, of the constitution concerns allegations of attempts to undermine competitive aspects of games. Goodell has the authority to determine whether such violations occurred and impose a range of penalties including stripping a team of draft choices, dropping a teamâs draft choices, fining a team and suspending and/or fining team executives.
The MMQB will keep you updated on the latest developments in this controversy.
Michael McCann is SIâs Legal Analyst. He is also an attorney and Director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law.
Yes, thatâs what I was talking about.
I would agree with this argument, because Mikie knows the guy ⌠but by definition, that means Iâm biased.
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honest, this cat is too law abiding to break a rule knowingly. I feared it was him when announced and was proven to be right. Sucks - a great guy so I am really biased - great family. This sucks.
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I canât handle another scandal⌠Especially based on this kind of bullshit. Moving on.
NFL probe has not implicated Bill Belichick, football staff in Patriotsâ sideline video of Bengals
By Mark Maske
January 1 at 10:57 AM
The NFL has found no evidence to this point linking Coach Bill Belichick or others on the New England Patriotsâ football staff to the video shot by a crew on behalf of the team showing footage of the Cincinnati Bengalsâ sideline during a game last month in Cleveland, according to people familiar with the matter.
The leagueâs investigation of the latest video incident involving the Patriots is winding down and could be completed as soon as this week, according to those people. They said it remains likely at this point, barring the last-minute uncovering of more damaging evidence, that the NFL will impose penalties consistent with those handed out in recent years in other cases of game-day infractions.
That would mean that the Patriots probably would be facing a fine in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly the loss or reduction in value of a draft pick.
It is not clear, however, when the NFL will announce a decision. Once NFL security officials complete their investigation and submit their findings, Commissioner Roger Goodell and other league leaders still must review those findings, decide whether to conduct additional interviews, deliberate over the potential penalties and determine when to announce the ruling.
But there is no indication at this point that Belichick or the Patriotsâ football staff has been tied to the video or that the investigation has uncovered evidence of a sustained, organized effort by the Patriots to gain a competitive on-field advantage, according to those people with knowledge of the case.
Belichick has said repeatedly that he and the Patriotsâ football staff had no involvement in the video.
Belichick and the Patriots were fined a total of $750,000 by the NFL and the team was stripped of a first-round draft selection in 2007 in the Spygate case. The Patriots were found to be improperly taping opponentsâ coaching signals.
In this case, the Patriots have admitted violating NFL video policy during the Bengals-Browns game on Dec. 8 in Cleveland. A video crew working for the Patriots and stationed in the press box, after being credentialed by the Browns, shot footage of the Bengalsâ sideline during their loss in Cleveland. The Patriots beat the Bengals one week later in Cincinnati.
But the Patriots said their violation was committed unwittingly while the crew filmed an online feature about a scout who works for the team and was in attendance at the Bengals-Browns game. Bengals officials confronted a member of the Patriotsâ film crew in the press box during the game. The videographer offered to delete the footage of the Bengalsâ sideline and said he hadnât known that he was doing anything improper.
Fox Sports later obtained and aired footage of the incident. It showed a video monitor aimed at the Bengalsâ sideline and contained audio of dialogue between a Patriots videographer and a Bengals security staffer.
The NFL originally had hoped to move quickly through its probe and decide on penalties. The process slowed when the investigation was turned over to NFL security officials to conduct interviews and sort through evidence, apparently including text messages and emails. But the league all along has appeared to consider the Patriotsâ violation a typical game-day violation worthy of typical game-day disciplinary measures, and that does not seem to have changed.
Precedents being considered by the NFL for the upcoming Patriots penalties include measures imposed in recent years on the Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens, as well as on the Patriots in the Deflategate case.
In that case, the Patriots were fined $1 million and stripped of first- and fourth-round draft choices for, the NFL concluded, scheming to use underinflated footballs. Quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for four games. But those penalties were more substantial than those imposed on the four other teams in the cases being considered.
Those teams were fined amounts ranging from $150,000 to $350,000. Giants Coach Ben McAdoo was fined $50,000. Browns General Manager Ray Farmer was suspended for four games. Falcons President Rich McKay was suspended from the NFL competition committee for three months. The Falcons lost a fifth-round draft pick. The Giants had a fourth-round draft choice dropped to the end of that round.
The Falcons were punished for pumping fake crowd noise into the stadium during games, the Browns for Farmer sending texts to the teamâs coaches during games, the Giants for using a walkie-talkie on the sideline to replace a malfunctioning communications system, and the Ravens for having two players on the field simultaneously during the preseason with the coach-to-player headsets in their helmets.
The Patriots, winners of six Super Bowls with Belichick and Brady, went 12-4 this season. They won their 11th straight AFC East title but squandered a first-round playoff bye by losing their regular season finale Sunday at home to the Miami Dolphins. They host the Tennessee Titans in a first-round AFC playoff game Saturday night in Foxborough, Mass.
Punishment handed down:
- Club fined $1.1 million.
- Loss of 2022 3rd round pick
- TV production crew can not film any games in 2020 season.
Mondillo gets screwed, and this signing covers it up
Pats recover 3rd round pick from a comp pick when Newton plays lights out and signs elsewhere next year.
I hope he does, this is his time to shine in the big void Tom left, it will define him if he comes in and performs well and allows Studham to not be the guy who followed Brady.
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