NFL COMMISSIONER Roger Goodell said on Wednesday that the league will take its time in a thorough investigation of the New England Patriots’ video recording of the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Patriots came under scrutiny on Monday after it emerged that a camera crew from the Super Bowl champions was found improperly filming the Bengals in their NFL game at Cleveland last weekend.
Goodell, speaking at the NFL meetings in Dallas on Wednesday, told reporters that there was no timeline to complete the league’s probe.
“It’s under review,” Goodell said. “We’re going to be thorough. We’re going to take our time and make sure we look at everything that’s pertinent here and make a decision.”
Goodell would not speculate if there would be a ruling before the end of the season.
The incident has revived memories of the 2007 “Spygate” scandal, when New England coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 after the Patriots were caught filming footage of the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets.
The team admitted Monday that a club video crew, independent of the football team, “inappropriately filmed the field from the press box” and said the purpose was to provide illustration of a scout at work for a documentary.
One of the things I’ve learned is you don’t draw conclusions until you have all the information,” Goodell said. “From our standpoint, I want to look at all the information. Once we have all the information then we draw conclusions.”
Goodell said the Patriots’ past video infractions “of course” would factor into the investigation, but added: “I think the issue is what information do we have from this incident.”
Addressing other topics, Goodell said the league’s investigation in to allegations of sexual assault against Antonio Brown was still underway.
Wide receiver Brown was released by the Patriots in September amid the NFL investigation into rape and sexual assault allegations which he has denied.
Brown played one game for the Patriots, who signed him after he engineered his departure from the Oakland Raiders but before his former trainer filed a civil lawsuit against him accusing him of sexually assaulting her.
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