Patriots news: NFL announces penalties for TV crew filming Bengals-Browns game last year

The NFL announced penalties for the New England Patriots stemming from an illegal filming incident back in December which involved the Bengals.

The NFL announced penalties for the New England Patriots stemming from an illegal filming incident back in December, with the Cincinnati Bengals being part of the story.

New England will be fined $1.1 million and forfeit their 2021 third-round pick. Additionally, the Patriots' film crew will not be allowed to film games during the upcoming season.

NFL has handed down these penalties to the Patriots for their television crew filming the Bengals-Browns game in December, sources tell @MikeReiss:

🏈$1.1 million in club fines.
🏈Loss of 2021 third-round pick.
🏈Patriots’ TV crews not allowed to shoot games during 2020 season.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 29, 2020

The incident in question stemmed from a member of the Patriots crew filming the Cincinnati Bengals sideline during a game between the Bengals and Cleveland Browns (via John Breech of CBS):

The New England Patriots are currently under NFL investigation for violating league rules last week when they illegally filmed the Bengals, and now, part of that video has been released.

Jay Glazer of FOX Sports got his hands on a video that was shot by the Bengals security team, and he released that footage on Sunday during the Network's NFL pregame show. In the 90-second clip provided to FOX Sports, you can hear the Bengals security team grilling the Patriots' videographers, who had clearly been filming the Bengals sideline, which is something that's prohibited by NFL rules.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported back in January the Pats were expected to face discipline from the league, though things had been mostly mum on that front in recent months.

The incident garnered quite a bit of publicity in the moment, which seemed fitting given this was the same franchise of the “Spygate” scandal during the 2007 season. The Patriots initially admitted to wrongdoing, though they claimed the man filming the sideline was an independent contractor.

It would seem the NFL disagrees, as New England's TV crews will be banned in 2020.

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