If New England thought SpyGate was swept under the rug, they were lying to themselves. It just got a whole lot bigger.

ESPN, by way of the Boston Herald, is reporting an unidentified source says a Patriots employee filmed practice sessions taken by the St. Louis Rams just days before the teams met for Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans.

The Patriots won 20-17, claiming their franchise’s first championship.

The question now becomes whether the league knew of this incident at the time, or later. Matt Walsh, a former employee of the Patriots, who recently had claimed he had knowledge of the allegations surrounding the franchise, but did not cite specifics, neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the alleged incident, but did tell ESPN:

“If they’re doing a thorough investigation — they didn’t contact me. So draw your own conclusions. Maybe they felt they didn’t need to. Maybe the league feels they got satisfactory answers from everything the Patriots sent them.”

The league having knowledge of this incident, or perhaps others involving the Patriots could be the reason such a strong punishment was doled out on the Patriots in 2007 - $750,000 in fines and the forfeiture of their first-round draft pick in 2008.

But, considering recent discoveries, it has to be asked if it was enough. If not, what would be?