Illegal Videotaping By The 2007 New England Patriots
In 2007, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots were accused of being a “peeping tom” of sorts, when former Patriots’ assistant coach Eric Mangini — who was then the the head coach of the New York Jets — accused Belichick and the Patriots of videotaping Jets’ defensive coaches’ signals from an unauthorized location during a September 9, 2007 game. This was a rules violation because the Patriots were taping what the Jets’ coaches were doing from their own sideline.
The NFL fined Belichick a sum of $500,000 for the scandal that became to be known as “Spygate,” and stripped the Patriots of their first round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Of course, the Patriots had the last laugh in all of this, when they would finish the 2007 regular season with an undefeated record, and advance to the Super Bowl that year.