Spygate Clarification Question

[Dirtywater]

OK, I am confused. Can someone please provide some insight on Spygate for me?

So, it is apparently legal to videotape the signals as long as it is in a designated area, ie. a covered part of the stadium that is not the coaches box. But, you can videotape from an endzone upper area?

So, basically, people are saying the Patriots cheated due to the location of the camera?!! Is that right?! People are on their high and mighty soapbox saying our championships are tainted because we got the same information that you are allowed to get but just that we got it from a different angle?

If so, then this whole thing is even more of a joke than I originally thought. If anyone knows the answers, please chime in.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

Technically you are correct .... the Pats were punished because of the manner in which they taped the Jets. That's the "cheating" side of things but, don't kid yourself, the Pats were penalized as harshly as they were because they knowingly disobeyed a rule that the NFL went out of their way to say was a no no!

 

[patchick]

A. Yep, you're right.

B. The explicit purpose of the huge penalty was to "send a message to the rest of the league" that the new sheriff in town is a tough guy and they'd better start dotting their i's and crossing their t's. Unfortunately, the message that the public received instead was "wow, what a big penalty, I guess that camera thingy must have been really terrible!"

 

[37Harrison]

Correct DW, there is nothing in the rules against filming opposing coaches signals. What is against the rules is filming anything from the sideline and various other areas the league has determined as "no filming zones."

Although the wanted to use the Pats as their message especially since they did it after the league warned teams not to with a memo that reinforced their preexisting rule.

 

[PatsNut]

Correct DW, there is nothing in the rules against filming opposing coaches signals. What is against the rules is filming anything from the sideline and various other areas the league has determined as "no filming zones."

Although the wanted to use the Pats as their message especially since they did it after the league warned teams not to with a memo that reinforced their preexisting rule.

You guys sure about that? I thought regardless of where the camera is, that signal callers cannot be filmed. I may be wrong, but I thought I had heard that somewhere.

 

[BadMoFo]

You guys sure about that? I thought regardless of where the camera is, that signal callers cannot be filmed. I may be wrong, but I thought I had heard that somewhere.

Correct. Filming hand signals, regardless of where it happens, is definitely a no-no. Unfortunately, we will never know what is on the tapes since they were never confiscated.

 

[DaBruinz]

Correct. Filming hand signals, regardless of where it happens, is definitely a no-no. Unfortunately, we will never know what is on the tapes since they were never confiscated.

This is false. There are 2 areas in the stadium that teams are allowed to have their own cameras. What they tape is for the team to decide.