Getty The Patriots have been accused of another cheating rumor.
Everyone appears to be piling on the New England Patriots these days.
Following the recent videotaping incident which featured allegations that a Patriots video crew illegally videotape the Cincinnati Bengals sideline during their Week 14 game versus the Cleveland Browns, Orlando Scandrick is now offering more dirt.
According to the former Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs defensive back, the Patriots would sweep hotels in hopes of finding an opposing team’s gameplan or playbook laying around.
Scandrick revealed the accusation bombshell while appearing on “The Herd:”
So @OScandrick just said on @TheHerd that the rumor around the league is the Patriots have people go to the visiting team hotel and do a sweep of the hotel in case they can find any game plan, playbook, etc. stuff laying around, and bring it to the team if they do.
While there are no other accusations against the Patriots involving this latest rumor, it’s obviously not a good look for a franchise that is being plagued by its current situation involving the Bengals.
Bill Belichick Continues to Deny Involvement in New Accusations
The Patriots head coach is continuing to deny accusations that he was involved in the Patriots’ latest scandal.
In new comments on Tuesday during a conference media call, Bill Belichick gave an eyebrow-raising response to the topic, saying that the Patriots will “try to be competitive in every area.”
Via ESPN’s Ben Baby:
“We’re competitive and we’ll try to be competitive in every area,” Belichick said during a conference call with Cincinnati media Tuesday morning. “But we don’t knowingly, intentionally want to do anything that’s across the line.
“But since that’s [Spygate] happened, I’d say we’ve tried to keep a good distance behind the line and not maybe take it as far as we would might have in the past. But it’s never really fundamentally changed there.”
Belichick had previously touched on the topic when the allegations first surfaced on Monday when he 100 percent denied that the Patriots anything to do with the video crew taping the Bengals’ sideline.
“Yeah I heard about this. You know, evidently this is our production people on the TV show that were there. We have nothing to do with anything they produce,” Belichick said. “I’ve never even seen their tapes. This is something we had 100 percent nothing to do with.”
Shannon Sharpe Calls for Belichick’s Firing
As if the heat couldn’t be bad enough for the Patriots during this two-game losing streak, Fox Sports analyst and NFL Hall-of-Famer Shannon Sharpe says the Patriots head coach should be fired if there’s evidence that he was involved in this latest scandal — which would be the third such case during his tenure as Patriots head coach.
Via NESN:
“This is a bad look, but let me tell you what should happen. If it is proven that they taped this, Coach Belichick has got to go,” Sharpe said, as seen in a since-deleted tweet posted by the “Undisputed” Twitter account. “(If he acknowledges involvement), and there’s no way to say he did not, he’s got to go. Mr. Kraft won’t fire him, but the NFL should remove him. This is a terrible look given that you’ve already lost draft picks, the team was fined 500 thousand and you did it again? You know you can’t tape the sideline or the coaches.”
Belichick was handed the largest fine ever for an NFL coach when the league fined him $500,000 for his role in Spygate back in 2007. The Patriots were also docked a first-round draft pick in 2008 due to breaking NFL rules.
It remains to be seen how the league will go this situation with the Patriots, but this is a tough distraction as New England looks to bounce back from a two-game losing streak entering their Week 15 matchup in Cincinnati.