ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- A somber coach Josh McDaniels apologized Saturday for his failure to promptly report to team executives and the NFL a secret videotaping of a portion of a 49ers' walk-through practice. A Broncos employee recorded the tape the day before Denver played San Francisco in London last month.
McDaniels said Broncos video director Steve Scarnecchia, who has been fired by the team, acted on his own when he filmed six minutes of the 49ers' practice. The coach added that when Scarnecchia informed him about the videotape later that same day, he was told immediately by McDaniels that's not the way he operates. McDaniels said he refused to view the videotape and directed that the file be deleted from a computer laptop. The 49ers beat the Broncos 24-16 at Wembley Stadium the next day.
Team officials said they became aware of the episode on Nov. 8, and began an internal probe in addition to notifying the league, which subsequently initiated its own investigation.
Neither the team nor the league would say who first made them aware of the taping, saying that information was confidential.
The league announced that McDaniels and the Broncos organization had been fined $50,000 each because of violations of league policies stemming from the delay in reporting the taping to the NFL after McDaniels first became aware of it on Oct. 30.
In addition, Scarnecchia faces a hearing to determine whether he should be banned from the NFL as a repeat violator of the league's integrity rules.
Both McDaniels and Scarnecchia were formerly employed by the New England Patriots. McDaniels was the Patriots' offensive coordinator prior to getting the Broncos job two years ago and Scarnecchia, according to the NFL, was among those involved in improperly videotaping opposing teams' coaching signals in the scandal known as "spygate." The Patriots organization and head coach Bill Belichick were fined $750,000 and the league stripped the team of its 2008 first-round draft pick.
McDaniels admitted he erred by not immediately telling his superiors about the incident.
"I made a mistake," McDaniels said. "I should have done that right away. We felt we handled it the right way by not doing anything with that (material) but I did not follow through with it."
McDaniels said he spoke by phone earlier Saturday with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and understands the importance of his role and the team's in protecting the NFL's good name and in maintaining competitive fairness. McDaniels also intended to call 49ers coach Mike Singletary and owner Pat Bowlen planned to call 49ers owner Jed York to convey their personal apologies.
"We understand it is not only our job individually but as an organization to uphold the integrity of the National Football League by what we do every day and this certainly was not a good example of that," McDaniels said. "We don't condone this type of activity. We don't teach it, coach it and nor would we ever in the future. It was an isolated situation, an unfortunate situation."
"We don't condone this type of activity. We don't teach it, coach it and nor would we ever in the future. It was an isolated situation, an unfortunate situation."
-- Josh McDaniels He also defended his hiring of Scarnecchia as well-intentioned, despite Scarnecchia's brush with "spygate."
"When we hired Steve, it was with the understanding that he would come here and do good work," McDaniels said. "In no way did we think this situation or type of situation would come up and be an issue, for us or for him."
Jeff Pash, an NFL executive vice president, said the league was satisfied that the Broncos did not gain any competitive advantage from the taping because it wasn't viewed. And when the team officials became aware of the taping, they looked into it and also notified the league.
"I think while no one is happy about this kind of event, I think everyone can take a step back and say, 'Well, when the team became aware of it, they did the right thing,'" Pash said.
Joe Ellis, the Broncos chief operating officer, said during a conference call that while owner Pat Bowlen and organization brass were disappointed and embarrassed by the taping incident, they do not view McDaniels' lapse in judgment in failing to quickly report the incident as cause to fire him.
"It is not, no," Ellis said. "The discipline has been handed down appropriately in our mind and in the mind of the owner. We've gone through it with the league, with the coach himself. He's admitted his mistake. He needs to move on and finish the season. Hopefully, we have some success on the field."
That said, Ellis indicated that Bowlen was pained by the entire episode and its impact on the organizational reputation of the Broncos.
"He's had his disappointments on the field and off the field, and this is another one of those, frankly," Ellis said. "He is nothing short of extremely disappointed. He realizes he has to take his medicine. So does the organization. We have to get back and re-earn some of the trust that comes off of an incident like this and he intends to do that."
With all this going on, the struggling Broncos do have to play on Sunday against St. Louis. They enter the game at 3-7 and they're 5-15 in their last 20 games, the worst stretch by Denver in nearly 40 years. And ultimately, that's where McDaniels' fate could be determined, though certainly this videotaping matter does not help.
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