It only took seven months.
The NFL finally punished the New England Patriots on Sunday night for an incident that happened back in December when a team staffer illegally videotaped the Cincinnati Bengals' sideline during a Week 14 game.
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Here's the Patriots' punishment, per ESPN's Mike Reiss:
- $1.1 million in club fines.
- Loss of 2021 third-round pick.
- Patriots’ TV crews not allowed to shoot games during 2020 season.
Additionally, Dave Mondillo, the supervising producer of the Patriots' in-house production team who was suspended by New England at the time, is "banned from NFL facilities until further notice."
The $1.1 million fine actually is more than the Patriots received for Spygate, in which Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team was fined $250,000 for illegally videotaping the New York Jets' sideline in 2007.
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The December incident actually occured during a Bengals-Browns game after a Cincinnati staffer spotted a Patriots employee filming the Bengals' sideline from the press box.
The Patriots said in a statement they were filming an episode of their "Do Your Job" documentary series that focused on the advance scout at that game, and that they simply had failed to notify the Bengals that the video crew would be there.