Roger Goodell Provides No Update on Investigation for Patriots' Videotaping Scandal
One looming penalty that remains for the New England Patriots is for their involvement in video taping the Cincinnati's Bengals' sideline during their game against the Cleveland Browns in early December. Though the NFL has obtained the video footage the team's video production crew took during that game, and the Patriots have publicly admitted to illegally video taping the sideline, the league has still not drawn a conclusion from their investigation.
During his annual Super Bowl press conference, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was asked by Ben Volin of The Boston Globe when the league would wrap up their investigation, and why it has taken so long to come to a conclusion.
"Our responsibility is to make sure we are being extremely thorough, Goodell said. "We have a responsibility to 31 other clubs, we have responsibility to our partners, we have a responsibility to our fans, to understand all of what happened and to make sure something that we don't know happened didn't happen. From our standpoint, we want to make sure we are being thorough.
"Our team has been on it. We have been focused on this. I think it hasn't been that lengthy of time. We have obviously put the focus on it, but we are going to get it right, and when we come to a conclusion we will certainly make sure people are aware of it."
It's been about six weeks since the NFL said they would be investigating the video taping incident between New England and Cincinnati. The timetable for a conclusion will apparently extend into the future, though it is not 100% certain, given that the commissioner provided no timetable whatsoever as to when the NFL would wrap up their investigation.
Though the video footage itself can verify if the Patriots could have gained a football-advantage from watching the film, what is hard to determine is the actual intent behind filming the sideline in the first place. That could factor into the penalties administered to New England for their illegal acts. Unfortunately, as a team that has dealt with a couple scandals over the past two decades, it's probably difficult for Goodell to give the Patriots the benefit of the doubt when they say they were filming for their "Do Your Job" series. So, background checks, interviews, etc. have been and may continue to take place during this investigation until it concludes.
Hopefully, New England receives a verdict sooner rather than later, so they know what their penalties are (if any) and can work around them.
