FOXBOROUGH - It was an unseasonably warm day last January as the Patriots hosted the Jets in a playoff game at Gillette Stadium. At one point, while the sellout crowd of 68,756 focused on the action, a Jets cameraman was told to stop filming from a spot above the north end zone.
It hardly registered on the radar at the time, but the incident created a stir yesterday, more than 11 months after the fact.
The Patriots, Jets, and videotaping. Here we go again.
The buzz began when Newsday reported the incident in yesterday's editions. In the wake of the Patriots being penalized for illegally filming the signals of Jets defensive coaches in this year's opener, the question was whether the Jets also had been using illegal videotaping practices.
Yesterday, Jets coach Eric Mangini described the actions as standard operating procedure and a common courtesy, and late yesterday the NFL confirmed that the team did not violate league rules.
As for what happened Jan. 7 at Gillette Stadium, Mangini said the Jets were granted permission by the Patriots to shoot from both end zones, although that could not be confirmed through New England officials. Mangini confirmed that during the game, a camera operator was asked to leave the area near the lighthouse in the stadium.
"What we do every away game is we tape our team from both end zones, whenever it's possible," Mangini said. "We always ask for permission to do that. It's granted, provided there is a physical space to do that. It's to get the same angle you get in practice, and anybody that asks us to do it, we extend the same courtesy. It's pretty common one way or the other, depending on how teams like to look at their game tape, and that's really what it was."
Mangini added that the camera operator was not taping the defensive signals of Patriots coaches. He also said the Jets filmed from the same location in a Nov. 12, 2006, regular-season game against the Patriots.
Asked why the Jets were stopped from filming in the playoff game, after apparently having been giving permission to do so, Mangini said: "I don't know. Really, it just was what it was. We had asked for permission, it was granted, and then that changed, and we respect their decision. It's their stadium."
The league's operations manual states that "no video recording devices of any kind are permitted to be in use in the coaches' booth, on the field, or in the locker room during the game." Furthermore, all video shooting locations for coaching purposes "must be enclosed on all sides with a roof overhead."
While the Jets cameraman was not in an enclosed location - there isn't one in Gillette Stadium's north end zone - the NFL said yesterday the team was not in violation of league rules.
