At a time when the Atlanta Falcons are bracing for the fallout of the NFL’s investigation regarding the use of fake crowd noise over a two-year period, the Falcons have retained a guy who had a role in a pair of past cheating scandals.
According to Alex Marvez of FOX Sports, the Falcons have hired Steve Scarnecchia to serve as assistant to the head coach.
In 2010, Scarneccia (then a Broncos employee) videotaped a 49ers walk-through practice prior to a game between the teams in London. The Broncos were fined $50,000, coach Josh McDaniels was fined $50,000, and Scarnecchia was fired.
He surfaced the following year in Syracuse, as the video director under former Orange coach Doug Marrone. Scarnecchia elevated to the position of director of football operations at Syracuse.
He previously worked for the Patriots from 2001 to 2004 in the video department, when the Patriots were recording the defensive coaching signals used by opponents.
Scarnecchia may indeed be a great guy who made a stupid mistake. And he may be entitled to a second chance.
But if that’s the case, let’s ditch the whole “working in the NFL is a privilege” nonsense. For plenty of coaching and front-office jobs, it’s only a privilege because the employees are privileged to be related to or acquainted with the right people, and that they’ll get hired regardless of any past affront to the integrity of the game that should otherwise result in the privilege being permanently revoked.
[Editor’s note: That’s not Scarnecchia in the photo. It’s just a shady-looking guy with a camera.]