Posted on 02/15/2008 10:56:41 AM PST by Hatteras
A day after meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in Washington, Sen. Arlen Specter said he continues to be troubled by a number of issues surrounding the league's handling of Spygate and will continue his investigation.
Specter, R-Pa., told ESPN.com that Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., offered support Thursday for his inquiry into the New England Patriots' questionable videotaping practices, saying Leahy is "prepared to have the committee pay for people who travel and investigate." Leahy sat in on a part of Wednesday's session with Goodell and league counsel, Specter said.
Sen. Arlen Specter, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, calls Roger Goodell's reasoning for the destroying of the Spygate evidence "absurd." "I'm determined to go forward," said Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. "You have answers and positions where [Goodell] is saying that with the destruction of tapes that, 'We did the right thing. We're absolutely sure.'
"Well, that is absurd
Goodell says things that don't make sense."
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
Free season tickets at the Eagles games. Specter is an embarrassment to PA. Maybe he should apply Scottish Law to his investigation.
Unfortunately, Specter and his cronies are the only ones that have something to hold over Roger Goodell’s head. And if it takes somebody like that to keep Goodell from destroying the league from the inside, out. I’m all for it. Heck, we’re better off when they are not legislating important issues anyway. Hopefully, it will take up enough of their time to keep them from ruining our lives. Either this or sending them off on extended vacations, I’m good with either.
Federal anti-trust exemption? How much is that really worth to MLB or to the NFL? With both major sports just about fully built-out, who in their right mind would want to start a competing league? All the major cities, and quite a few mid-size ones, are taken.
Both sports should ask Congress to yank the exemption & take their investigatory power & .... well, you know.
I’m an Eagles fan, but if they couldn’t win on the field... who cares?
It has more to do with revenue sharing than competition from any start-up leagues. The revenue generated from TV. Without it, small market teams would not be able to compete financially. Eventually, the league would eat itself.
The lady asked me why Congress is involved, and I answered her. I don't agree with it. I don't think the Feds have any place in it. But that is indeed their justification for sticking their noses into it.
L
"The only thing we're doing is looking at public records and trying to verify his employment history in an effort to learn about him," Aiello said.
A coverup is going on, imo. Say, does anyone know if Goodell is very close to Patriot's owner Kraft? Seems to me I read that somewhere? If so, it might explain a lot of things.
So what you’re saying is that this all has to do with Team CATV arrangments & the launching of the NFL channel? Lovely.
The Patriots penalty was no penalty at all; it was akin to fining me $2. Goodell destroyed the tapes and covered up. The NFL has anti-trust exemptions and functions as a cartel. That league needs an enema.
Kraft was instrumental in Goodell being hired as commissioner, and IMHO, Goodell functions as Kraft’s sock puppet.
Because the NFL got an exemption from federal anti-trust laws in exchange for government oversight.
I wonder what favor Comcast wants from Specter in return for the $101,750 dollars they contributed to his campaign? Specter also said on WEEI that he is only doing this because he is an Eagles fan and wants to know if the Pats cheated to beat them in the Super Bowl.
If Goodell was Kraft’s sock puppet then the Pats wouldn’t have been the first team busted for taping. There’s plenty of indications that they aren’t the only team that does it, plenty of other targets Goodell could have made an example of to get Kraft to stop, instead he busted the Pats. If that’s a sock puppet it’s a damn uncomfortable sock.
Goodell was dragged into the investigation because of public complaints by the Jets coach, a former Pats assistant. AFAIC, this is less about the Pats and more about the NFL.
Coaches bitch and moan constantly, the Jets could have been ignored while some other team got busted and a quiet message to Kraft that there could be a second bust.
I think it’s about an idiot Senator with too much time on his hands. It’s a stupid rule, it’s always been a stupid rule, it’s probably going to be post dated this off-season when they finally give the defense a radio helmet. Specter needs to rent a life.
Personally, I think Goodell knew that some of the Pats illegal activities involved Super Bowls, and wanted it buried, so he made a minimal fine, destroyed the evidence, and counted on the fact that all the major news media have massive contracts with the NFL (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX) to keep the coverage from getting too deep.
Comcast is in a big fight with the NFL over access to NFLNetwork programming. This is Sphincter letting the NFL know that it will stop only when they pay the “protection”.
The point is that, as disliked as Specter is, and he may have a financial interest or he may not, but he is also a fan who like the majority of fans in the NFL had a lot of questions and fortunately for NFL fans, he carries enough weight to have his questions answered.
Before Specter got involved, we knew that Roger Goodell and the NFL were aware of cheating taking place on opening day of 2007 and sometime during 2006. Now we find out that Belichick had admitted to Goodell back on September 13 that he had been employing this illegal tactic since he started as the coach of the Patriots but Goodell failed to mention this admission and quickly burned the "evidence". Keep in mind, Belichick says that he acted based on his interpretation of the rules. So it is safe to assume that Belichick employed his spy tactics (which he "believed" to be legal) at every opportunity, including the three Super Bowls.
Now, thanks to Specter, and unfortunately for Roger Goodell, we have the emergence of a former employee of the Patriots that apparently still holds "evidence" to shed light on the extense of Belichick's cheating. And also, hopefully, thanks to Specter, this "evidence' won't be destroyed and we'll get the truth, whatever that may be.
Which strikes me as ridiculous. Teams compete on the field but are franchisees of the same company. The Yankees can't entertain their fans and make gobs of revenue without a visiting team. I'd bet if you looked into it it, the whole anti-trust exemption thing sprung from some sort of labor relations thing. Democrats seeking to enlarge the base to include athletes.
Does Arlen Spector realize what an ass he is? I guess not.....
Because they can.
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