NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell talks during a press conference at the Hilton Hotel on September 19, 2014 in New York City. (AFP Photo/Elsa)
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Wednesday that the league will take its time in a thorough investigation of the New England Patriots’ video recording of the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Patriots came under scrutiny on Monday after it emerged that a camera crew from the Super Bowl champions was found improperly filming the Bengals in their NFL game at Cleveland last weekend.
Goodell, speaking at the NFL meetings in Dallas on Wednesday, told reporters that there was no timeline to complete the league’s probe.
“It’s under review,” Goodell said. “We’re going to be thorough. We’re going to take our time and make sure we look at everything that’s pertinent here and make a decision.”
Goodell would not speculate if there would be a ruling before the end of the season.
The incident has revived memories of the 2007 “Spygate” scandal, when New England coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 after the Patriots were caught filming footage of the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets.
The team admitted Monday that a club video crew, independent of the football team, “inappropriately filmed the field from the press box” and said the purpose was to provide illustration of a scout at work for a documentary.
“One of the things I’ve learned is you don’t draw conclusions until you have all the information,” Goodell said. “From our standpoint, I want look at all the information. Once we have all the information then we draw conclusions.”
Goodell said the Patriots’ past video infractions “of course” would factor into the investigation, but added: “I think the issue is what information do we have from this incident.”
Belichick said Tuesday he had no involvement with a video crew caught filming footage of the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline last weekend.
The Patriots, who face the Bengals on Sunday, issued a statement late on Monday saying the three-person video crew had been sent to Cleveland on Sunday to obtain footage for a behind-the-scenes feature about team scouts.
The Patriots admitted the crew had filmed “inappropriate” footage from the press box but denied any deliberate wrongdoing.
“The sole purpose of the filming was to provide an illustration of an advance scout at work on the road,” the Patriots said, adding that the crew had immediately turned over all footage to the league.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Belichick said he “didn’t have anything at all to do with this” following the camera crew revelation.
Belichick added that since “Spygate” erupted, the team had always erred on the side of caution.
“We’re competitive and we’ll try to be competitive in every area,” Belichick said. “But we don’t knowingly, intentionally want to do anything that’s across the line.
“Since [Spygate]) happened, I’d say we’ve tried to keep a good distance behind the line and not maybe take it as far as we would might have in the past. But it’s never really fundamentally changed there.”
