The New England Patriots have suspended the video producer involved in filming the Bengals sideline in Cleveland earlier this month.
A league source confirmed to theBoston Globeon Sunday that Dave Mondillo, a longtime full-time employee of Kraft Sports and Entertainment, has been placed on temporary leave.
Mondillo released a statement after his suspension, reiterating — asthe Patriots had done before him— that filming of the Bengals sideline was for a web series and not for the team’s personal benefit.
“On Dec. 8, I was doing what I have done for what I have 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,” Mondillo said, according toBoston.com. “It never occurred to me that my actions and the actions of my crew would be misconstrued.”
“Our department was charged with completing four ‘Do Your Job’ segments before the end of the year,” he continued. “One of the segments was to follow a pro scout throughout his week to show the audience what his job entails.”
Elise Amendola/AP/Shutterstock
Mondillo went on to elaborate that he had “obtained permission and received credentials” for the Cincinnati Bengals-Cleveland Browns game. He said the production team set up in the press box and filmed the Patriots scout watching the game while panning back and forth to the game itself.
“I gave the Sony SXS card to NFL security and we complied with their request, packed up, and went home,” Mondillo said. “I had no intention to provide footage to football operations, I did not provide any footage, and I was never asked to do so.”
The Patriots confirmed in their statement that they had video crew at the Bengals-Browns game on Sunday. The team explained that they were sent there to film for a series calledDo Your Job, which includes “behind-the-scenes features on various departments within the organization” for Patriots.com.
According to the Patriots, the crew was specifically filming a scout for a feature on the Patriots’ scouting department.
“While we sought and were granted credentialed access from the Cleveland Browns for the video crew, our failure to inform the Bengals and the League was an unintended oversight,” the team said in their statement. “In addition to filming the scout, the production crew — without specific knowledge of League rules — inappropriately filmed the field from the press box.”
They added that “there was no intention of using the footage for any other purpose.”
Once the video crew was questioned, they turned over all their footage to the league and cooperated accordingly, the Patriots said.
“While aware that one of the scouts was being profiled for aDo Your Jobepisode, our football staff had no other involvement whatsoever in the planning, filming or creative decisions made during the production of these features,” the team said.
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
“As I understand it, they were videotaping him, trying to show kind of what an advance scout does, or something Iike that, I don’t know,” he said. “You’ll have to wait to see the show I guess and see how it’s presented.”
source: people.com
