Ernie Adams played a key role in the New England Patriots’ Spygate scandal in 2007. Like Bill Belichick, he refuses to testify in a new documentary

It’s been almost two decades since the New England Patriots’ Spygate scandal and there are still questions unanswered. And that is likely to remain the case.

“The whole video thing, the game against the Jets in 2007, I’m not going to say anything more about that,” Ernie Adams, then the Patriots’ Director of Football Research, said in a new Apple TV documentary about the New England franchise.

“Do you think I could tell you stories? Yes. But I’ll take them to my grave,” explained the 70-year-old, who at the time had made recordings of the New York Jets’ signals in Week 1.

The Pats were caught and fined 250,000 dollars by the NFL and the loss of a first-round pick, with head coach Bill Belichick fined 500,000 dollars.

Belichick will also remain silent

“Everybody needs to know that there have been a lot of teams in NFL history that have tried to record signals,” Adams said. “It’s part of the game. Obviously, other people have taped our signals. I know they’ve done that. That’s kind of counterintelligence. “

Adams and Belichick are probably the two people with the most knowledge about the Spygate scandal. But the head coach will also remain silent. “It’s all in the past,” he said in the “Apple TV” documentary: “I’ve said my piece. I have nothing to add to that.”

Belichick had previously admitted that the Patriots had filmed the Jets’ signals. However, the legendary head coach always played down the significance of the recordings. “We did it because it was more convenient for us and we could study them better,” Belichick said on “CBS.”

Should the Patriots have been penalized more severely?

The Patriots won the Super Bowl six times between 2000 and 2023 during the Belichick and Tom Brady era.

But Spygate also belongs to this period. To this day, quite a few NFL officials believe that the Patriots should have been punished more severely back then.

Only Adams and Belichick know what really happened at the start of the 2007 season. Since both remain silent, further revelations are unlikely.