Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania called Roger Goodell to a meeting in which Goodell reportedly admitted that the tapes he destroyed after confiscating them from the Patriots during this year’s “SpyGate” scandal indicate that Bill Belichick had been taping defensive signals since 2000.
While this certainly isn’t a positive development for Patriots fans, I personally don’t see what’s really news here. According to Bill Belichick, he didn’t know that this was against the rules, so it would follow that he’d been doing it right along. It also was accepted as common knowledge, especially based on statements from the Cowboys and Packers at the time of SpyGate, that the Patriots had been doing this habitually.
I also remain on the fence on how much of an impact the videotaping of signals had on the outcome of games. That seems to be what’s really at issue here, since the Patriots have already been reprimanded and punished for the rule infraction of videotaping itself. We don’t know for sure that the videotapes were used during the course of the game, affecting the play-calling on offense, rather than used to strategize between games. Some former NFL players and coaches have suggested that the first scenario is logistically unrealistic.
Still, according to Specter, the destruction of those SpyGate tapes by the NFL is analogous to the CIA destroying waterboarding tapes. There’s talk of invoking federal statutes governing corporate trade secrets. And apparently we’re all supposed to be re-scandalized by the Patriots thanks to Specter’s publicity stunt this week.
There are plenty of people for whom the Specter story will be good fuel for a new wave of self-righteousness about the Pats and Belichick. Personally, I’m more worried about the other video investigation going on right now, the one that has the NFL meeting with former Patriots video employee Matt Walsh to discuss the story that came out in the Herald a few weeks ago saying that the Patriots filmed a Rams practice before the 2001 Super Bowl. If there turns out to be a smoking gun for that investigation, that, in my opinion, amounts to a heap of new trouble for Patriots fans.
In the meantime, here’s a nice post by a political blogger on the 10 things she’d rather see Sen. Specter working on in Washington than determining whether Bill Belichick is a big doody-head.
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[...] While Supplies Last – Sports wrote an interesting post today on Specter looms over PatriotsHere’s a quick excerptSome former NFL players and coaches have suggested that the first scenario is logistically unrealistic. [...]
Amazing what a politician will go through to get a few extra votes. Shouldn’t we be saving taxpayer dollars by leaving the politicians to deal with politics and the commissioner to deal with the NFL? Up to this point Goodell has been an iron fisted dictator, so why the belief that he
Nice article, Beth.
Specter is wasting taxpayer dollars with this foolish investigation. Baseball players taking steroids is one thing, as those are illegal substances anywhere. This is akin to maybe corking a bat. Would the Senate have hearings if players were caught corking their bats? I think not. This is a league matter and should be left to be handled as such.
I’m ashamed of the politicians on capitol hill. I’m surprised that other Senators and Congressmen haven’t spoken up about this. However you feel about this Spygate issued we should all be in agreement that this is a waste of taxpayer money. Especially when we have the war in Iraq, mortgage crisis, possible recession, and more school shootings to deal with. What a disgrace. I can’t believe that the same people that ran this hearing and the steroid hearing actually have a say in how our country is run. After what I have witnessed this week I have zero faith in the people running this country.
[...] While Supplies Last – Sports wrote an interesting post today on Most Valuable NetworkHere’s a quick excerpt [...]
Let me see a player smokes a joint Suspend him for he is a role model. The team using numerous people cheat “oh it did not matter we would have won any way. Shame, Shame, Shame.
Time will tell if this was worth the trouble.
I would agree that this is a waste of tax payer money but by the same token most of what senators/congress and reps do on a daily basis is a waste.
So I can’t say that I am not glad that I am least half way intertested in this. Matt Walsh tell us what you know…..
how convienient a six round pick turns himself into an elite quaterback! hmm…. It always seems as if brady is always a step ahead!
i remember when he was the gaint defensive coach and the giants always had these great third quater adjustments!
let belichick twist in the wind! it couldn’t happent to a nicer guy!
Sorry Phil, not sure where you get ‘The team using numerous people cheat
Guys, I am happy that we are spending tax dollars on this. 90% of the time they are spent on some things I don’t care about or better yet put in someone else’s pocket. I finally feel like i’m getting something in return now. The NFL is the most important thing to me outside of family, friends, work. So it is important to me to keep the soul of the sport clean. Now, I do feel bad for you Pats fans, but by reading some of your comments I may begin to change my mind. The pats accomplishments have to be stricken from the books as soon as they are found guilty. BOTTOM LINE.
**The pats accomplishments have to be stricken from the books as soon as they are found guilty.**
you know what? i agree. but the important part there is the “being found guilty” part. for me, they need to be found guilty, formally, based on incontrovertible evidence, of a substantial and NEW rule infraction (they have already been punished for SpyGate), in something OTHER than the court of public opinion. and that hasn’t happened yet. BOTTOM LINE.
How can you possibly ask to strike history from the books? Based on what, speculation and the emotional reaction of hate? The only way that could be done would be if there was ABSOLUTE proof that the cheating was the direct cause of the victory, and I don’t see how you could ever prove that. The best you could do would be to assume that it “may” have contributed, and even then you will get quite varying arguments.
And lest anyone forget, the Patriots went undefeated throughout the regular season and against many of the leagues top teams, and that was AFTER spygate and cheating. This also includes the Giants where they rolled up 38 points, so it would be foolish to assume they could not possibly have won any big games without it.
What we have is wholesale hatred of the Patriots by most(?) outside of their fanbase. This hate is not born solely from spygate but mainly due to being an elite team. Throughout the decades the very top teams have always been hated; Pittsburgh, Oakland and Dallas of old, and the 49ers and more recently Indy and New England. Let’s not cloud the issue between real justice and hating a rival team simply because it’s great.
This story even made it to my newspaper of choice over here in Blighty – The Independent. They even had a photograph of the one and only Bill Belichick.
You can’t go striking things from history just because of a couple of minor infringements – it’s just not cricket.
The way I look at it is like this: there’s no way on earth that a bunch of rag-tag colonists could defeat a British army, so obviously George Washington cheated in the American Revolution. I think we can agree that that’s reasonable enough.
But no one’s proposing that we strike that from the record books, are they?
Farrar what are you taking about?….. It will obviously not be literally stricken from the books kids…. but branding the lombardi trophies they won with an asterik, then launching them to the moon wouldn’t be such a bad idea lol. We’ll never know how much this impacted the game, and never be able to prove the effects, who else participated etc etc, just like you said Beth….and that’s the worst part of it. The fact that they cheated is pathetic, and if that proves to be true that they cheated to the scale accused, then the Patriots were NEVER an “elite” team to begin with. Not to me and many others except Pats fans.
Does that mean we can put an asterix next to America’s suspect victory in the American Revolution?
Danny Dan, you think this is a GOOD use tax payer dollars? Are you kidding me? The NFL is the most important thing in your life outside of family, friends, and work? Am I the only person who finds this completely ludicrous? I can find no way whatsoever that spending tax payer money on a GAME can be a good thing. Do people like you watch the news? Have you see the stock market lately? Have you been to the grocery store lately and noticed the way the price of food is going up? Do you have a child to send to college? Have you noticed that there are parts of this country where middle class families cannot afford to buy and/or keep a home? Or better yet, have you noticed that there’s both a historical presidential race and a contoversial war going on? Get real.
Well said SportyGal85. I have no opposition to SpyGate being investigated, but it should be by THE NFL, not the supposed “leaders” of the free world. Maybe we should spend some tax dollars investigating Specter’s connections and contributions from Comcast?
They should not have even been in the Super Bowl against the Rams to begin with. Someone should look into that BS tuck call.
Correct me if I’m wrong but they got caught and severly punished. Do you really want to waste tax money digging deep into the past when many experts will come forwatrd claiming that this “cheat” information is useless at game time anyway because of the speed of flow and logistics? What is it Patriot haters are hoping to gain by this anyway?
A better line is to find out what bozo the politician’s real agenda is.
aww, i was kinda hoping to see everyone start signing off their posts with ‘BOTTOM LINE.’ that would’ve been cool.
Patrick you are like beating a dead horse with the tuck rule. How about ‘roughing the passer’ in 1976?
Get over it already.
If the Raiders were still a good team like they were that year – would you still be crying for the ‘tuck rule’
It’s amazing how many Pats fans excuse the cheating scandal and find any & every reason to justify it. It’s a little frightening actually. I really hope their fans are at least teaching their children right from wrong. Kids see how stuff like this is dealt with (or swept under the rug) and it shapes how they approach sports & the rules involved.
It’s funny… I have a die-hard Pats fan at work who will fight tooth and nail to defend his beloved team, justifying all of this “well, every team cheats, it’s just part of the game — we prefer to call it strategy”
…
He’s an umpire who coaches little kids.
See what I mean?
If you condone it, it’s a never ending cycle.
Jamie
Who never saw it coming?
I certainly did – I was always willing to countenance that New York would win the super bowl. And so did most of the others around here. Yes, we all predicted that New England would win, that’s what fans do, especially when you’ve a team as good as New England’s.
Angel, more then once in previous posts and comments – Pats fans had commented on the play on part of the Giants in the last game of the regular season.
If the GMEN had kept up the pressure the entire game and not backed off like the did in the beginning of the second half, then the GMEN would have won it and the Pats would have been 15-1. But the Pats did beat your GMEN!
Historically, the Pats beat a team they played during the season in the playoffs.
Again it was mentioned here at the Patriot Act and on other sites about the defense of the GMEN and their need to play all 60 minutes – and they did a great job for 60 minutes.
But if it wasn’t for Manning breaking free and making a great pass and a great catch by Tyrnee – then the game may have ended differently.
As far as the fat and starving. If any team has an owner that is willing to spend the right kind of money on players and coaches they can consistently be in the playoffs and challenge for the SB. The GMEN did go to the SB between 1992 and 2007 – correct?
I bet in week 4 of the season you were not singing the praise of Coughlin or Manning and definitely did not see a SB ring in their future at that point.
The SB was a good win by the GMEN on all levels.
BRENT wrote:
If the GMEN had kept up the pressure the entire game and not backed off like the did in the beginning of the second half, then the GMEN would have won it and the Pats would have been 15-1. But the Pats did beat your GMEN!
the reason why 16-0 at Giants Stadium…because we rather take that loss…and then get that big Win!
Nobody care’s about perfect season…we’ll take that L, for the Big W.
So much for perfection…i quess the Giants had the perfect ending.
the G-Men!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Andrew Farrar what are you talking about a suspect win in the American Revolution? that is war you Moron not a sport that we pay to see. And Sporty Gal I am well aware of the world and American events, trust me I dont need your help with that. And yes, I do love football that much, sorry if your find that to be “ludicrous”. Honestly , it’s sickening how you guys still are making excuses for the pats. I would understand why you guys dont even want to know the truth…anyway…have a nice off season CHEATERS!!!!!!!!!
Andrew is clearly out on a day pass from Bedlam.
Ignoring him is your best option.
Why the ‘hiding my face in shame’ photo at the top
of the page Beth?
Go Arlen!
Don’t Feed The Troll
On a day pass from bedlam? On the contrary, I’ve never even been to New York.
I have every confidence that even as I write this the boundless genius of Bill Belichick is already applying itself to coming back stronger next season.
Andrew Farrar
Obviously NONE of you know what goes on in the halls of our nations Capitol. For any truly ignorant person to say that this is NOT a waste of money is just plain STUPID!! Were you aware that members of congress were absent from certain VOTES, that could help or hurt the very people they represent, because they were busy with the Clemens hearing? Hmm…..what’s more important here? Also, the whole government interference thing should strike EVERYONE as odd and utterly disturbing. Also, some food for thought for all you Pats haters….1 day before the super bowl, Specter comes out and raises hell about the so-called “spygate” incident right? Well who is his #1 Corporate donor, that finances his re-election bids? Comcast? Yeah that’s correct! Now what company is in a bitter dispute with Roger Goodell and the NFL? Comcast? Right again!!! You people need to watch the news and NOBODY in their right mind would value the NFL as a close second to “family, friends and work”…somebody is going all Brittney on us! BOTTOM LINE!
The government has better thingd to worry about, obviously, but since Specter is determined to go on with his investigation, argiung that fact is a waste of time. As of now, the investigation will happen.
I, for one, am glad. I always thought that the league’s destroying of tapes was sketchy, bordering on a cover-up. Then Goodell, who had said the tapes go back only to 2006, suddenly opens up to the fact that the tapes go to 2000. Then he admits that there were tapes in all those Steeler games. Goodell knows a lot that he was previously concealing, and with Walsh everpresent it could get ugly.
I always remembered hearing that during the Pats dynasty (01-04) that they were undefeated against teams that they played twice in the second meeting a la PIT in 04. Belichick was hailed for his adjustments. As I see it, that stat is good evidence of the effects of videotaping signals.
RYAN. There is no reason to get all worked up and basically accuse everyone who doesn’t agree with you of being ignorant to current events. see below:
“You people need to watch the news and NOBODY in their right mind would value the NFL as a close second to
P.S. RYAN
Notice I said AFTER family,friends,work. Before you go Britney on the Keyboard with your comments please thoroughly read my posts. honestly, here is the BOTTOM LINE:
18-1 *
well, at least the BOTTOM LINE thing did catch on.