SpyGate Rears It’s Head…Again

The New England Patriots have put the whole “SpyGate” issue behind them as much as they can. It was an early black mark on a season that ended in near perfection…but not quite. The NFL would like the whole thing to simply go away and never be spoken of again. That however is not the case. Why? Because as long as there are Dolphins, Jets, and Bills fans, we won’t let the Patriots fans forget it. This time around however, IT IS (not to be confused with the contraction IT’S) not the Patriots who got caught. It was the Broncos.

The league has fined the Denver Broncos $50,000 bucks and HC Josh McDaniels the same (New England Fans will be screaming how unfair this is). The team has fired Director of Video Operations Steve Scarnecchia for video recording the walk-through practice of the San Francisco 49ers while in London for their game. Scarnecchia was fired for what is being termed “just cause”. Scarnecchia has a prior incident of taping walk-through practices but who and when are sealed by the league.

The irony of all this is simple. Both McDaniel and Scarnecchia were staffed by the grand Poo-Bah of cheating,  New England Patriots HC, Billy Belichick. Coincidence? Hardly. According to the NFL, HC Josh McDaniels was fined for not reporting the incident in a timely manner, he was not held to a more stringent penalty, say that of Bill Belichick’s 200,000 dollar fine, because the NFL believe’s McDaniels statement that he “Did not watch the tape“.

The Patriots as you will remember were also hit with the loss of first round draft pick. The Broncos will not be penalized to that degree.

Still, you can’t help but question the history of filming practices considering the fact the trend seems to be neatly entrenched in those related to Bill Belichick. I’m sure that he is shaking his head and quietly thanking his former assistant for allowing his name to come back into the folds again…as a cheater. But then again, not many outside of New England ever forgot to begin with.