I'm sure this tape will also be destroyed by the league before anyone else can look it at it, just like the tapes related to Spygate were ordered destroyed by Goodell ten years ago. Supposedly there wasn't anything really to see. I read some of the old articles and was surprised I didn't remember the Packers were the team that first caught them.
https://deadspin.com/bombshell...-cheaters-1729286402
The Patriots’ taping apparently went undetected until 2006, when Packers security caught cameraman Matt Estrella filming illegally. (He claimed he was merely taking scenic shots for “Kraft Productions.”) That offseason, the NFL warned the Patriots in writing. Before the next year’s opener the Jets set up a sting operation, with the assistance of team and NFL security, to catch the Patriots in the act.
FROM THE SAME ARTICLE
Inside a room accessible only to Belichick and a few others, they found a library of scouting material containing videotapes of opponents’ signals, with detailed notes matching signals to plays for many teams going back seven seasons. Among them were handwritten diagrams of the defensive signals of the Pittsburgh Steelers, including the notes used in the January 2002 AFC Championship Game won by the Patriots 24-17. Yet almost as quickly as the tapes and notes were found, they were destroyed, on Goodell’s orders: League executives stomped the tapes into pieces and shredded the papers inside a Gillette Stadium conference room.
This is almost exactly what they were caught doing in Cincinnati, but now they have the plausible deniability that these are "contract workers" and that they didn't "have any knowledge" of what they were actually filming. Of course, taking pictures of some backup QBs signaling calls in on the field is exactly what you'd expect to see in a documentary about advance scouts (a truly exciting topic related to staying in a lot of hotel rooms).
Know how many Super Bowls the Patriots won between 2006 (when the Packers caught them illegally filming) and 2013 - zero. They were still a great team, but they lost in the playoffs every year. In 2007 when they probably still had notes on all the signals, they went 16-0 but lost on the helmet catch. Then they gradually morped into a team that had the same random luck as other teams. The last few years, they morped back into a team that always seems to be a step ahead of the other team and seems to "luck" out more than other teams - announcers and talking heads just attribute it to Belichick's brilliance. It may have just as much to do with the the fact that they've just figured out a different way to cheat.