Julian Edelman: Patriots videotaping controversy ‘pretty much a joke’
Julian Edelman, one of the longest-tenured players on the New England Patriots roster this season, laughed off the scandal fans are calling Spygate 2.0.
Leave it to one of the most outspoken personalities in the New England Patriots locker room to give voice to what thousands of fans out there are thinking.
The team’s leading receiver this year, Julian Edelman, joined “The Greg Hill Show” on Thursday to discuss the Patriots’ fortunes as well as the videotaping scandal that has engulfed the team over the past two weeks. To hear it from Edelman though, Spygate 2.0 has barely even registered amongst himself and his teammates.
Here’s what he said on the show, per WEEI:
"“Yeah, that’s pretty much a joke. We haven’t even thought about it, honestly. We have been thinking about other things. It’s funny, but it is what it is. I don’t know, it’s ridiculous. My focus is on the Buffalo Bills.”"
Edelman’s statement echoes the sentiments shared by his quarterback and good friend, Tom Brady, who earlier this week said that he didn’t think a single Patriots player “gave it one second of thought.”
But while Brady primarily downplayed the topic and changed the subject during his interview, Edelman wasn’t shy about expressing how he really felt about the scandal. For him to use words like “joke,” “funny,” and “ridiculous” make it pretty apparent what his true thoughts and feelings are on the subject matter.
This entire ordeal began nearly two weeks ago when news first broke that the Patriots had been caught filming the Bengals’ sideline during Cincinnati’s game against the Cleveland Browns. The production crew claimed to be shooting a segment on the life of an advance scout for the team website’s docuseries “Do Your Job,” but it was quickly made clear to the videographers that what they were doing was illegal by NFL rules.
Complicating matters, Fox Sports released video footage of the confrontation this past weekend between Bengals staffers and the Patriots production crew. In the footage, you can hear the Patriots videographers offering to delete the footage, with one Bengals staffer replying, “it’s too late for that.”
The Patriots played the Bengals one week later and beat them in Cincinnati, 34-13.
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Regardless of whether or not Bill Belichick or the Patriots brass knew about/ordained the practice of the film crew’s actions in Cleveland, the fact remains that members of the New England organization broke league rules. Now it’s just a matter of how the NFL plans to punish the team, which will surely occur during this offseason after the league has finished its investigation.