The Patriots Are Cheating Again
12 years ago the Patriots were fined 250,000 dollars and lost a first round draft pick due to cheating allegations. These allegations claimed the Patriots were filming an opposing team's sideline and cutting to the game clock. This film would allow the patriots to match the signals coaches were calling with the time on the recording of the whole game and figure out what calls mean which plays.
3 days ago, the patriots were accused of recording the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline. An independent videographer, hired by Patriots owner Robert Kraft, was sent to the Browns v. Bengals game to film an interview for a youtube series. This series is called Do Your Job, and it follows what different members of the Patriots staff do day to day. The issue arose when, after the interview was filmed, a Bengal’s employees saw the camera trained on the Cincinnati sideline. If the Patriots were indeed filming the sideline it would allow them to decode some of the Bengals play calls, which they would have been able to use to help defeat the Bengals in their game on December 15th. When the videographer was confronted by Bengals staffers, he offered to pay if everyone could just forget the incident. The Bengals promptly refused that offer and confiscated the footage.
The argument against the Patriots is very strong. First of all, the footage consists of 8 minutes focused directly on the Bengals sideline as coaches are signaling. History has shown that the Patriots are willing to cheat. The 2007 spygate scandal and another scandal in 2015 called deflategate take the benefit of the doubt from the Patriots. The Patriots have also lost 2 out of the last 3 games, both to rivals who they will have to face in the playoffs. This has brought up a lot of doubt in what was seen as a dominant New England team at the beginning of the season. For this reason, it is paramount for the Patriots to get back to a winning streak.
Although the argument against the Patriots is stronger than the argument for them, some of the theories discrediting the cheating allegations are more amusing. The most blatant reason the Patriots wouldn’t be cheating is due to how terrible the Bengals are. Going into week 15 with a 1-12 record, the Bengals are certainly the worst team in the NFL. The Patriots, on the other hand, are one of the best teams in the league. An interesting theory that was raised by Barstool Sports is that the head coach, Bill Belichick, ordered the filming so the Patriots would get accused of cheating. If the other scandals have proven one thing, it’s that the Patriots play better after they get accused of cheating, and with the recent losses, the Patriots need a fire lit under them.
On December 11th, the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Godell, held a press conference addressing multiple issues in the league. Among these was the plans for the investigation of the Patriots. Godell said that there will be a thorough investigation and the previous scandals will be taken into account. For Godell, this is a shot at redemption after the investigations of Spygate and Deflategate were seemingly swept under the rug. The decision on these allegations holds consequences not only for the Patriots, but for the NFL as a whole.