Patriots filming punishment buried by Cam Newton signing

The New England Patriots have been fined and will lose a draft pick for filming punishment.

In a controversy that feels like forever ago, the New England Patriots are finally seeing their punishment for filming the Cincinnati Bengals sidelines this past season. A TV crew was at the Bengals-Browns game in December when they were caught taping the sidelines. They claimed it was for B-roll, but clearly the NFL did not agree.

According to Mike Reiss with ESPN, the Patriots have been assessed a $1.1 million fine, they lost all privileges to have TV crews shoot sidelines in 2020, and most important of all they lose their 2021 3rd-round draft pick.

This is obviously not the Patriots first foray into videotaping sidelines. They served penalties for taping sidelines for years, a controversy is now known as “Spygate” and the first “gate” to start all the other NFL-gates.

Senior club officials are also going to have to train on NFL policies on videotaping, which seemed like it should have happened a long time ago.

It’s interesting that this punishment came down literally minutes after the Patriots broke the internet by signing Cam Newton to a one-year deal. We know there are some things in sports that are coincidences, but it’s never really that with the Patriots. This was a tactical move to bury the lead. The front page is still Cam Newton when the Pats knew it was going to be their punishment.

Say what you want about the punishment whether it was fair or not, the punishment seems final. David Mondillo fell on the sword during the investigation and was fired by the Patriots for it. Now, he’s banned from NFL facilities until further notice. Once again, the Patriots have been punished for breaking the rules. Do with that what you will.