Apparently Josh McDaniels wasn’t paying attention when his former boss Bill Belichick got caught for “Spygate 1” because now McDaniels’ Broncos are involved in “Spygate 2.”
The NFL is investigating whether or not a Broncos’ employee videotaped a 49ers’ walk-through practice at London’s Wembley Stadium in Week 8. The team’s director of video operations Steve Scarnecchia is currently on a personal leave of absence as the team and the NFL investigate the situation.
And surprise, surprise – Scarnecchia is a former Patriot as well.
From the Denver Post:
McDaniels and Scarnecchia both previously worked for the Patriots, Scarnecchia between 2001 and 2005 and McDaniels between 2001 and 2009 before being hired by the Broncos. In 2007, the Patriots were found to have videotaped New York Jets coaches sending in signals during a game between the two teams, which is against league rules.
McDaniels hired Scarnecchia to run the Broncos’ video operations shortly after he accepted the job in January 2009.
The NFL’s current investigation revolves around practices held by the Broncos and the 49ers on Saturday, Oct. 30, in Wembley Stadium. Both teams were allotted time to hold walk-through practices at the stadium that day. It was the only time while the two teams were in England that they would have used the same facility to practice on the same day. Teams normally bar anyone not associated with the team from watching practice. Taping another team’s practice could result in a severe penalty from the NFL.
That must have been some crappy film because the 49ers wound up beating the Broncos, 24-16. If you’re going to get caught filming another team, you might as well win the Super Bowl like the Patriots did. Don’t tape someone in a regular season game and then lose to them the next day in rather lackluster fashion.
What are the chances that the Broncos blame Scarnecchia for the entire thing? “Oh, we didn’t know he was doing that. He acted on his own. Dude has always been crazy. We almost had to fire him for stealing printers, so yeah, it figures that he would do something like this.”
It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes out of this. The Broncos aren’t the Patriots and McDaniels isn’t Belichick. The Patriots lost their first round pick in 2008 because of “Spygate 1,” but they didn’t miss a beat. They’re still winning, they’re still in contention and it’s almost like the “Spygate” thing never happened. But if the Broncos lose a first rounder, you can bet that it’ll affect them at some point in the future.
