Fox Sports Airs Patriots’ Footage of Bengals’ Sideline

Fox Sports has aired the Patriots‘ footage of the Bengals‘ sideline Sunday after a freelancer hired by the Patriots filmed the Bengals sideline in a game against the Browns on December 8. The footage was part of a Patriots’ web series on an advance scout team called, “Do Your Job.”

The Browns gave New England credentials to film during the game, but the Bengals and the NFL had no idea this was going on. During the game it looks like the segment is being shot by a Bengals’ employee, but during the video shown by Fox Sports you can hear a member of the Bengals’ security team questioning the person filming.

Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer revealed the video obtained by the league documenting the interaction between the videographer, David Mondillo, and a member of Bengals’ security.

Mondillo released a statement Sunday night that said, “On December 8th I was doing what I have done for more than 18 years — working to produce high quality content that tells the unique, behind-the-scenes stories of people, players and the organization. It never occurred to me that my actions and the actions of my crew would be misconstrued. We went directly to the press box and set up our camera to get the footage we needed. We interviewed and shot the Patriots scout sitting in a chair watching the action and panned back and forth from him to what he was seeing on the sidelines. We also took footage of the field as the intent was to show what he was looking at when he looked through his binoculars watching the game.”

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He continued the statement giving many details of what happened in the press box.

“At that point, I went to the restroom and when I came back, my cameraman was told to stop shooting by someone from the NFL and he was joined by two others from the Bengals organization and an additional NFL security person. We stopped shooting immediately when asked to do so and cooperated fully. We had a detailed exchange about who we were and why we were there and what they wanted us to do. I gave the Sony SXS card to NFL security and we complied with their request, packed up and went home. I had no intention to provide footage to football operations, I did not provide any footage, and I was never asked to do so,” said Montillo.

Mondillo has since been suspended by the Patriots, according to the Boston Globe.

Comissioner Roger Goodell said on Wednesday that the league won’t make a decision on the situation until the investigation is complete. For the record the Patriots defeated the Bengals 34-13.

Article by Frank DeLorenzo