The bad news is that the Denver Broncos are being investigated for videotaping a 49ers practice last month in London. The worse news is that the Broncos still lost the game.
Jeff Legwold and Dave Kreiger of the Denver Post report that the league is looking into whether the Broncos recorded a San Fran walk-through practice at Wembley Stadium on October 30, the day before the two teams played there. On the 30th, each team had access to the venue for the session aimed at reviewing key portions of the game plan.
Per the Post, Broncos COO Joe Ellis confirmed that Broncos director of video operations Steve Scarnecchia is on a “personal leave of absence” as the NFL and the team investigate the situation.
McDaniels was employed by the Patriots during the infamous Spygate scandal, which arose from the videotaping of in-game defensive coaching signals. Scarnecchia left after the 2004 season, and he became the Jets’ director of video operations under coach Eric Mangini in 2006. Both McDaniels and Scarnecchia arrived in New England in 2001.
On the eve of Super Bowl XLII, the Boston Herald reported that the Patriots had videotaped the Rams’ walk-through practice prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. The Herald later retracted the report via a front-page apology.
Though it appears that Scarnecchia is being positioned to take the fall (assuming there’s a fall to take), we can’t imagine the head coach coming out of this one unscathed, if the allegations are substantiated.