Security officials grounded a drone seen flying over the Atlanta Falcons' practice field Thursday at Rice University.

Before all the conspiracy theorists start pointing fingers at the New England Patriots, Peter King of TheMMQB.com reports that a neighborhood resident apparently flew the drone over the field.

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King, the pool reporter assigned to cover the Falcons practice, wrote, "With the field situated next to a residential area abutting the Rice campus, there was extra security between the edge of the field (with a fence and high hedges) and the neighborhood, so the Falcons could feel secure running a practice as though they were at their home facility. There was only one brief security heads-up: Security officers grounded a drone that was sent airborne by one of the residents in the neighborhood on Thursday."

Drones are commonly used now by NFL teams to film practice sessions, giving coaches a bird's-eye view of players and formations.

Unfortunately, the Patriots' history of espionage and other questionable acts (see Spygate and Deflategate) will make some fans wonder about that drone. That topic even surfaced again this week, when former Rams running back Marshall Faulk told a reporter he remains convinced that the Patriots taped the Rams' walk-through practice the day before the teams met in the Super Bowl in 2002. The Patriots, 14-point underdogs, won 20-17.

That's not the only time such allegations have surfaced regarding the Patriots in a Super Bowl. A couple years ago, ESPN reported that several Panthers believe the Patriots taped their practices before Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, with one Panthers source saying, “Our players came in after that first half and said it was like [the Patriots] were in our huddle."