Patriots Cheating Scandal

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Patriots coach Bill Belichick addresses the cheating issue in a press conference.

Brendan Riccuci and Zack Warner

The New England Patriots are the most successful franchise in the last decade: 3 Super Bowls, 5 AFC championships and arguably the most intelligent Coach-Quarterback duo of all time. The question is did they cheat again?

 

Last Sunday, December 8, the Patriots were accused of filming their next opponents, the Cincinnati Bengals, sideline to steal “play calling” signs from the opposing coaching staff.

 

During Week 14, The Patriots sent a video team to Cleveland; the reasoning was that the Patriots were filming a documentary on an advance scout who was at the game. The advanced scout was apparently there to prepare a report on the Cincinnati Bengals, the team the Pats played Week 15, December 15. 

 

Given permission by the Browns the Patriots sent a third party video contactor to Cleveland to shoot. The Bengals were not aware of this. 

 

Once the game started a Bengals employee noticed the camera man pointing his camera directly at the Bengals sideline, which would continue for the entire first quarter. 

 

Eventually, the Bengals employee got security. When the cameraman was questioned it is stated that he asked if he could delete all of the footage and forget this ever happened. This is very odd and shows what he was doing most likely puts the Patriots in the wrong. 

 

Oakdale High School Junior Will Boughn was asked if he believes the Patriots have done this in previous weeks and not been caught: “Of course they have why do you think their defense has taken such a major leap.” 

 

When Coach Bill Belichick was asked to address the situation he responded, “I have never even seen any of their tapes or anything else. This is something that we have 100 percent zero involvement with.”

 

It is against NFL rules for one team to film another team from the press box, so the question is if the Pats are deemed guilty of this, how should the team be punished? Senior Charlie Doughty responded, “The Patriots should have an offseason ban where they can’t sign any free agents.”

 

Although  that may seem a little harsh, this isn’t the first time the Patriots have been accused of cheating so maybe something needs to happen.

The New England Patriots are a very historic and winning franchise, but cheating cannot go unnoticed. It will only be a matter of time before we find out if the NFL will do something about this.