The New England Patriots decided Sunday night was a great time to make some major news, as reports emerged from Foxborough that they had reached an agreement on a one-year deal with Cam Newton worth up to $7.5 million.
The Newton signing brought plenty of fanfare and excitement from social media, as it was the signing many NFL fans had speculated on since Newton was let go by the Panthers earlier in the offseason, but there was also maybe another reason for the timing of this news getting out. Sunday night also happened to be the night that the NFL’s punishment of the Patriots for their latest Spygate-like controversy came down.
The league fined the Pats $1.1 million and took away their 2021 third-round pick for the illegal filming of a Browns-Bengals game in December — as well as banning Pats video crews from going to any games during the 2020 season.
Developing news story: The NFL has handed down the following penalties to the Patriots for their television crew filming the field and Cincinnati sideline during a December game between the Bengals and Browns, per sources: pic.twitter.com/Co8kvuofR6
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) June 29, 2020
This news broke mere minutes after the Newton news in a legendary news dump by the Pats, as bringing in Cam as their Brady replacement will lead ever A-block on sports talk television this week, while the punishment will now be treated as tertiary news. As far as impact, the third-round pick is clearly the biggest loss — no one is crying for Bob Kraft losing another $1.1 million in fines — given that the Pats always value their mid-round picks heavily and lean on those on draft day.