No end in sight for New England Patriots videotaping controversy

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell offered little in the way of progress updates with regards to the New England Patriots’ role in the Spygate 2.0 scandal.

Those hoping for a swift conclusion to the latest controversy involving the New England Patriots are presumably going to be disappointed.

According to Bleacher Report’s Rob Goldberg, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell either didn’t have any answers on the topic, or he refused to provide them to the media during his press conference on Wednesday leading up to Super Bowl 54. And while it’s not necessarily a surprise that Goodell had nothing new to add on the subject, it’s frustrating nonetheless – for both those wanting the Patriots to be punished and those wanting the Patriots to be exonerated.

As a matter of fact, there are probably plenty of fans out there who don’t consider themselves to be a part of either of those two factions, and they still probably want this whole thing to blow over and be done with already.

“Our responsibility is to make sure we’re being extremely thorough,” Goodell said at the press conference. “We’re going to get it right and when we come to a conclusion, we’ll certainly make sure that people are aware of it. Our team has been on it, we’ve been focused on this. It has not been that lengthy of a time.”

He’s right in that regard. The original incident occurred less than two months ago – on December 8 to be exact – during a game between the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals. A production crew identifying themselves as freelance contractors shooting a documentary for the Patriots’ team website were caught illegally filming the Bengals’ sideline during the first quarter of the game.

Though the crew denied any intentional wrongdoing on their part – and head coach Bill Belichick vehemently denied any prior knowledge of this crew or sanctioning on his part of their activities – the incident immediately brought back memories of the 2007 videotaping controversy the Patriots were found guilty of participating in – aka Spygate.

The only difference is that this time around, the Patriots aren’t trying to deny anything. In 2007, they did their best to sweep the whole situation under the rug – Goodell himself actually had the tape evidence destroyed by his fellow NFL operatives (a move they later regretted).

It remains to be seen what punishment, if any, New England will face upon the completion of the league’s investigation. The only thing we know for certain at this point is that the investigation is still ongoing, and that Spygate 2.0 isn’t going away anytime soon.