The New England Patriots are expected to face league discipline again over gameday video violations stemming from their taping of the Cincinnati Bengals sideline, according to reports.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Patriots are expected to face discipline for their violations, though it’s unclear what the nature of that discipline will be. Word is expected to come down within the next two weeks.
Patriots are expected to be disciplined for acknowledged gameday video violations in Cincinnati, per league sources. Discipline likely to come in the next two weeks, but not all security reports back to NFL yet.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 4, 2020
While corroborating Schefter’s reporting, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport crucially added that it is not yet clear if there is any link back to football operations as the league awaits all the security reports.
That last question is a big one. A member of New England’s video crew was caught taping the Cincinnati sideline a week before the two teams played each other, but all involved have claimed that he was simply filming for an in-house documentary, not for any nefarious purposes. So far, reporting indicates that there isn’t anything leading back to Bill Belichick or the football side of things. A fine and perhaps a loss of draft pick seems likely here, with Belichick escaping any sort of personal discipline.
