NFL officials are investigating after videos of a Miami Dolphins practice were posted to Twitter.
Ahead of their Thursday night contest against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Dolphins conducted walkthrough practices Wednesday at Nippert Stadium, home of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats football team, while Hurricane Ian continues to batter Florida. But an individual present at the stadium took videos of the team running plays, then posted them to Twitter.
NFL analyst and podcaster Brett Kollmann called out the individual Wednesday on Twitter, noting that league security officials are serious about preventing unauthorized recording. “Looks like someone was recording the entire Dolphins walk through and posting it to Twitter,” Kollmann wrote. “NFL security is going to be massively p***ed about this. They take this stuff seriously when a club is on the road.”
The account in question posted six clips of the Dolphins offense in sweatsuits and practice jerseys, jogging through plays. The videos also show Tua Tagovailoa playing at quarterback, indicating he will likely play Thursday after sustaining a back injury during Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills. The user went on to boast that he has “the entire playbook” in his phone’s camera roll.
Several clips from practice were also shared by Barstool Sports’ University of Cincinnati affiliate. “@Bengals got some film for y’all,” the account joked.
Thursday morning, Miami Herald sports reporter Barry Jackson reported on Twitter that the league was investigating the incident. “Per source, NFL security is looking into the Dolphins’ practice being filmed by someone yesterday,” Jackson tweeted. “League obviously doesn’t want that happening…” League sources gave similar statements to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and UPI.
The Miami Dolphins also sent Barstool Sports founder and President Dave Portnoy an email asking him to take down the posts, since the practice was closed. Portnoy posted screenshots of the email, then replied with a tweet giving a thumbs-down, indicating he would not take the posts down.
Many users on Twitter put the blame on the Dolphins for not taking better security precautions. Nippert Stadium is located in the center of the University of Cincinnati campus; students often have to walk through the stadium itself to get to class, and several campus buildings have full views of the field. Indeed, a Snapchat post shared by the Barstool Cincinnati account showed a group of students standing on a walkway, watching the Dolphins practice.
The Dolphins seemed to be aware of the visibility of their practice, however, and used some trickery of their own to keep their game plan a secret. “The #Dolphins noticed people watching their walkthrough Wednesday in Cincinnati, so they made a sly adjustment: All the clips circulating on Twitter have 12 players on offense,” NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero tweeted Thursday afternoon “Fake plays? Fake routes on real plays? Either way, Mike McDaniel and company staying one step ahead.”
Furthermore, another league source told Washington Post NFL reporter Mark Maske that the league does not suspect that a competitive violation was committed. Kollmann also noted on Twitter that no action would be taken against the person who filmed the practice. He did speculate, however, that the NFL would not be so kind to Barstool Sports. “[C]onsidering that Barstool runs a sports book and posted private practice video on their social media leading up to a game that they as a company are taking bets on. Yeah…the NFL won’t like that,” Kollman tweeted.
The Dolphins take on the Bengals Thursday night at 8:15 p.m.
