[CBFF] Your tax dollars at work!

[Kenny Claxton]

Isn't Specter the same guy that hearings on the Directv Sunday Ticket
Package because his homestate and major contributor Comcast was
whining?

On 2/2/08, Jerry Madsen <jerrywm at gmail.com> wrote:
> I disagree, Matt.  The tapes are insights to the Jets signal calling;
> information that only the Jets should have.  What purpose is served by
> others - even the league office - having that info?
>
> Additionally, I thought Goodell made a good point.  After copies of
> the tapes were leaked to the press, he wanted to ensure that all
> copies were gone.  By destroying the tapes, he would know whether or
> not the Pats had more tapes if other copies surfaced.
>
> Much ado about nothing.  Goodell is being polite (and shrewd) by
> meeting with Spector.  He owes this guy nothing.  If anything, I
> question Spector; raising this issue during Superbowl week seems a
> little too convenient.
>
> Jerry
>
>
> On 2/1/08, Matt Langschwager <matthewindc at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Not duh.  Why would the NFL have destroyed the tapes?  Doesn't make sense to me.  As TMQ wrote recently, if the tapes exonerate the Pats, let them out and clear the air.  If the tapes vilify the Pats, all destroying them does is cast a shadow of doubt and taints New England's accomplishments.  In a sport containing the Jerramy Stevenses of the world, you can't give the benefit of the doubt here, unfortunately.
> >
> > I will agree though that this hardly seems like a matter for Congress, and more like a sports fan abusing his rank.
> >
> > Jerry Madsen <jerrywm at gmail.com> wrote: You gotta be flipping kidding me?  First of all, the NFL is a private
> > entity.  Second, what does "spygate" have to do with the antitrust
> > exemption?  Third, Goodell stuck it to the Pats real good; it's not as
> > if he just looked the other way.  This isn't Pud Selig we're talking
> > about here.  Forth, it makes sense that they would have destroyed the
> > tapes.  Duh!
> >
> > Jerry
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Friday, February 1, 2008
> >
> > Senator wants to know why NFL destroyed Patriots spy tapes
> > ESPN.com news services
> >
> > Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) wanted to hear the NFL's explanation for
> > the purging of evidence in the infamous "Spygate" case involving the
> > New England Patriots. He wrote commissioner Roger Goodell on Nov. 15.
> > He got no response.
> >
> > Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote
> > Goodell again more than a month later, after getting no acknowledgment
> > to the initial communication.
> >
> > Two days before the Super Bowl, there is plenty of response.
> >
> > In a phone interview Thursday with The New York Times, Specter said
> > the committee at some point will call on Goodell to discuss why the
> > league destroyed the tapes that revealed the Patriots had been spying
> > on the competition.
> >
> > "That requires an explanation," Specter told The Times. "The NFL has a
> > very preferred status in our country with their antitrust exemption.
> > The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the
> > game. It's analogous to the CIA destruction of tapes, or any time you
> > have records destroyed."
> >
> > An NFL spokesman told The Times that Specter's letters did not reach
> > the league until late last week, and there was no mention of the
> > letters on the occasions the two parties had communicated on other
> > issues. Specter said his office had been told by the NFL that there
> > would be no response until after Super Bowl XLII.
> >
> > Spygate came to the forefront in September, when New York Jets
> > security officials discovered a Patriots video assistant recording the
> > Jets' defensive signals during the Sept. 9 game at Giants Stadium. The
> > videocamera and tape were confiscated. Goodell also ordered the
> > Patriots to turn over all videotape, notes and files involving taping
> > of opponents' signals.
> >
> > The Patriots got hit by the most severe penalty in NFL history --
> > coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, the team was fined $250,000
> > and also will lose a first-round pick in the draft in April.
> >
> > Subsequently, the league said it had destroyed the tapes after looking
> > at them. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, in a September e-mail to ESPN.com,
> > wrote that the reason for destroying them was "so that our clubs would
> > know they no longer exist and cannot be used by anyone."
> >
> > Specter, a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan who still calls sports
> > radio stations on Monday mornings, said he was concerned about the
> > integrity of sports.
> >
> > "I don't think you have to have a law broken to have a legitimate
> > interest by the Congress on the integrity of the game ... What if
> > there was something on the tapes we might want to be subpoenaed, for
> > example? You can't destroy it. That would be obstruction of justice,"
> > Specter said to The Times.
> >
> > There is no timetable for when the committee would call upon Goodell,
> > who has a previously scheduled news conference Friday morning in
> > Phoenix.
> >
> > Bill Belichick, at his Friday morning news conference, was asked about
> > Specter and his demand for an NFL explanation on the tapes' demise.
> > "It's a league matter," Belichick said. "I don't know anything about
> > it."
> >
> > The possibility exists that Patriots employees or other NFL personnel
> > would have to testify before the committee.
> >
> > "It's premature to say whom we're going to call or when," Specter
> > said. "It starts with the commissioner. He had the tapes, and he made
> > the decision as to what the punishment could be. He made the decision
> > to destroy them."
> >
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