Posted on 02/15/2008 10:56:41 AM PST by Hatteras
I thought it was the NFL demanding tribute for the privilege of watching football.
I think Hatteras has a point. The League is essentially a cartel that divides TV & merchandising revenue. Gate receipts are a small portion of the revenue now. Without an anti-trust exemption, some enterprising lawyer (think John Edwards) would sue to get a portion of the money pot by claiming that he was somehow injured by this arrangement. The anti-trust exemption protects them from this kind of legal shakedown.
That's always been my take. With all the high tech cameras around today, with all the cameras around football stadiums on game day, and with 60,000 people in the place, how on earth could you ever hope to ban any sort of recording of events on the field? Why would you even try. Seems like the Pat's mistake was filming from the side line, instead of from the big hair of some woman in the cheap seats.
Recording another team's pre Super Bowl walk-through on the other hand, is a whole different matter.
The winners get accused of a lot of stuff. I’ve never seen a dynasty in any sport that wasn’t accused of something, it’s the real test of whether a team is a dynasty. Do people think you must be cheating? Congratulations you’re a dynasty, and sometimes the accusations aren’t crap.
I still can’t buy the Goodell cover up angle, it makes absolutely no sense what so ever to bust the Pats if they’re going to cover up what the Pats were doing. If they wanted a cover up the smart move would have been to twist some arms (including Krafts) to get the radio in the defensive helmet last season like the competition committee recommend and which almost passed the owner vote (it was like 2 shy) and end the problem before the season even started. THAT’S how you cover this up, not by publicly busting the team you’re trying to protect.
People need to tone down the paranoia, not everything that happens on this planet is a vast conspiracy and a cover up.
I don’t even see the big deal about the walk thru. Most final walk thrus are in street clothes and primarily discuss the pre-game schedule, which is a matter of public record by Saturday anyway.
I understand your point on Specter. I don’t agree with it, but I understand it.
I take the view that cheating, bending-the-rules — whatever you want to call it — is built in to sports. Most of it is just trying to get an edge, like stealing the catcher’s signs in baseball or offensive holding in football. It’s an accepted part of the game.
My view is if the Eagles, or League security could not prevent the Pats from taping their defensive signals, tough on the Eagles. Again, I’m an Eagles fan.
Where I draw the line is drugs. But I realize that there are those that think it’s more fun to see 500 ft homers on Sportscenter than to worry about that.
Its about the pissing contest between the NFL Network and Comcast. Specter has accepted money from Comcast and as you know we have the best senate money can buy.
"The league, of course, negotiates the national contracts for all its teams. Individual franchises hold their own deals for preseason contests and for local radio broadcasts of preseason and regular-season games. The loss of the antitrust exemption, which certainly appears unlikely, would prohibit the NFL from bargaining for all 32 of its member teams.
Under such a scenario, teams would negotiate their own broadcast contracts, and some franchises clearly would command much larger rights fees than others. Currently, all of the league's teams share the rights fees equally, and that is the cornerstone of the NFL revenue-sharing model. "
Nah, Specter is getting involved because he doesn’t want the Democrats to take all the blame for interfering in sports management. Specter just wants the Republicans to look as foolish and the Democrats.
They’d only go to individual contracts if the owners were stupid. The reality is the reason the contracts are worth so much money is because they’re all national and all negotiated at once with newer contracts than contenders. If the anti-trust exemption went away the owners would just find a way to “sell” their contracts to the league.
Yeah, there’s going to be another round of arguing between the NFLN and comcast during the off season. Comcast is desperate for a stronger position.
What’s next? Hearings on NCAA Men’s B’ball tourney bubble teams? Why did 6 SEC teams make it and only 5 from the ACC?
Add this to the bizarre Grassley inquisition into mega-preacher finance as another example of Republican irrelevance.
Or, in some cases, greedy.
I'm not taking sides -- but Specter is.
That would be stupid because over the haul they’ll get more money negotiating national contracts via the league. I don’t think any of them will get ESPN to pay them 34.3 million bucks a season individually, but that’s what their share of the MNF contract works out to.
Improper allocation of governmental resources, a reach outside of the charter granted Congress by the People.
we have judges who think ‘judicial independence’ means they can legislate
and legislators like specter who think they can assume the role of the courts
if ‘spygate’ is a legal issue it is a legal issue for the teams, the league and, if truly needed, duly appointed prosecutors of the executive - not our senators
it must be a slow-media season for specter
I keep hearing this from cheater, I mean, New England fans. The old "everybody does it" rationale.
If Billy the Cheat withheld evidence--and you have to believe that he did because he turned over only six tapes when the cheating has been going on for seven or eight years--he should be banned from the NFL, and the Patriots should be stripped of their supposed Super Bowl "wins."
I’m a Steeler fan, so sorry to crush your stupid insult. Try again when you have some facts and the ability to discuss the issue like an adult.
Cause the ACC sucks.
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