SPORTS BRONCOS

The National Football League has fined the Denver Broncos and head coach Josh McDaniels $50,000 each for violating league policies before the team’s game against the San Francisco 49ers last month in London.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell imposed fines Saturday following an investigation into a six-minute video of the 49er’s practice at Wembley Stadium shot the day before the game by then-Broncos video operations director, Steve Scarnecchia, who passed the film to McDaniels. Even though McDaniels did not view the illicit video, Goodell fined both him and the Broncos organization because they failed to report the matter, which violated the NFL’s policy.

The Broncos fired Scarnecchia. Reports say Goodell informed the Broncos former video chief that he faces a hearing to determine whether he will be banned from the NFL because he is a repeat violator of the league’s integrity regulations.

The San Francisco 49ers went on to defeat the Denver Broncos, 24-16 in the October 31 contest in London.

Before joining the Denver Broncos, McDaniels and Scarnecchia worked together on the New England Patriots under head coach Bill Belichick for four years from 2001 to 2005, when Scarnecchia left the team. McDaniels left the Patriots in 2009 to coach the Broncos, and hired Scarnecchia as Denver’s video operations director shortly afterward.

In 2007, the NFL fined the Patriots $250,000 and Belichick a record $500,000 for spying on the New York Jets’ defensive signals. Neither McDaniels nor Scarnecchia were named in the case. The spying incident occurred during a Patriots-Jets game when a Patriots video assistant was caught on the Jets sideline with a camera.

Some information in this story was provided by AP and AFP