Report: NFL has found no link between Patriots football operations, video crew https://t.co/JuewFS8NxY
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) January 1, 2020
That’s right; the NFL, with the advanced capabilities of the Manitowoc County police department, has been unable to make even a loose, fabricated connection between the Patriots football operations and the “damage is done” video reporter famously filming innocuous footage of the Cincinnati Bengals sideline in what many simple minds labeled “Spygate 2”.
Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports that the investigation is winding down and that there has been nothing to show that the football operations staff had any link to the video. If that remains the case, the Patriots are likely to face a similar penalty to ones imposed on other teams for gameday infractions in recent years.
So why hasn’t this hit the ticker of ESPN’s bottom line yet? How come rational sports fans aren’t retracting their unfunny and unoriginal tweets of the Patriots logo with a camera or just the word “Cheatriots”. This was the LEAD STORY on a December Monday Night Football game nationally and locally and this is a pretty big development in the case. Not a peep. Just a few retweets of the ProFootballTalk update on the ‘investigation’.
I went over the time limit that’s how mad I am pic.twitter.com/HMt21CbhgB
— BadGalAli (@aliweitz) December 10, 2019
I’m at rock bottom pic.twitter.com/LENBnMZeBi
— BadGalAli (@aliweitz) December 10, 2019
Now that the narrative has been established, it doesn’t matter if we find out the videographer was an undercover Jets reporter–the Patriots are cheaters crowd have escaped Pandora’s box. Roger Goodell lit the match and let the internet do its work. There’s no place for actual investigations and due process in the NFL.