New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches warmups during a preseason NFL football game between the New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers, Aug. 19, 2023, in Green Bay, Wis. In 2007, the NFL fined the Patriots US$250,000 and Belichick US$500,000 after the team was found to have videotaped signals by coaches with the New York Jets outside of designated areas for filming.Matt Ludtke/The Associated Press
Canada’s soccer team used drones to spy on its opponents? Say it ain’t so.
News that a member of the coaching staff of Canada’s Olympic women’s soccer team flew drones over New Zealand’s team to scout its players during a practice is hardly the first time a high-profile sports team used technology to get a secret look at a rival team’s play.
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Some major-league teams have gone to great lengths and employed creative techniques to track rival players or team strategies as a way to gain an advantage.
Sports teams have long used game replays to study their opponents, and trying to intercept and interpret a team’s hand signals has long been a part of sports such as baseball. But the increasing use of live video and other technology has caused some sports leagues to blow the whistle when the methods are seen as going too far.
Footballs teams, for example, have been caught filming opponents illegally. In 2007, the National Football League fined the New England Patriots US$250,000 and then-coach Bill Belichick US$500,000 after the team was found to have videotaped signals by coaches with the New York Jets outside of designated areas for filming. The team also lost a first-round draft pick.
In baseball, several teams have been caught illegally using technology to steal signs from their opponents. Major League Baseball fined the Houston Astros US$5-million after the team was found to have used a video camera in the outfield to steal signs from the opposing team’s catcher in 2017 and 2018.
The Astros were able to decode the signals and relay information, sometimes by banging on a garbage can, to their batters about what type of pitch was expected. After the scandal erupted, team managers were suspended and then fired.
The league also found in 2017 that the Boston Red Sox had illegally used video technology to monitor signals by the New York Yankees, and that a Red Sox trainer used an Apple watch to send messages to players in the dugout, who in turn relayed signals to the batter about expected pitches.
USA Today last year reported that a U.S. college basketball team had years before used a secret camera in its arena to record video of opponents’ practices. The issue led to an agreement among teams that they would notify visiting teams of any cameras located in the arena, and that they would be turned off and the lens capped, the news organization reported.