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The New England Patriots were caught taping the Cincinnati Bengals last week in what they insisted was a big misunderstanding involving a behind the scenes piece on an advanced scout. However, as further reports have come out, it’s become clear that their initial excuse was not enough to justify what was on the tape confiscated by the Bengals and the NFL.
On Sunday, CBS’ Jason La Canfora reported the Pats are expected to receive “significant” penalties in the form of fines, being stripped of a draft pick, and possibly the suspension of ownership or some member of upper management. The investigation is still ongoing into exactly who was involved and what the directive of it was, but after a week of conjecture as to what was on the tape, we finally got an answer to that.
Fox’s Jay Glazer revealed footage on Fox NFL Sunday showing the tape of what the Patriots had taken of the Bengals sideline and the videographers insisting they can just delete the footage, while Bengals security says “the damage is done.”
It is fairly damning evidence — and the Patriots saying they can just delete it and it’ll all be forgotten doesn’t seem to help their case here — but the bigger question for the NFL is who wanted this footage and why. None of it is a good look for a franchise that certainly doesn’t get any benefit of the doubt in situations like these given its history, and we’ll have to wait to see what the final verdict is from the league in the coming weeks.
Written by: Uproxx
