Patriot Spying Cover Up?

The NFL “investigation” of the NE Patriots’ sideline videotaping took a bizarre turn last week when the league announced that the investigation was concluded and all materials – including videotapes – submitted to the league by the Pats had been destroyed. Say what?

 

In most other realms, such material would be considered “evidence.” And as anyone who has ever watched a TV crime show knows, you never destroy evidence. Unless you are trying to hide something – even if it is the prosecutor doing the shredding.

 

I’ve written before about the half-baked  job Roger Goodell has done on this whole scandal. The fine and draft pick sanctions that look tougher than they really are (Belichick’s $500,000 fine is only 12.5% of his annual salary. And at $4 million per he’s not going to have to forego the Maserati because of the fine. The Pats lost a pick, but lower picks if they actually make the playoffs, and even then they will have a first round draft pick – San Fran’s).

But the actual investigation was kangaroo court. It was conducted hastily – Belichick’s fine was imposed less than a week after the known taping incident occurred. No press reports indicate that the league interviewed anyone on the Patriots’ coaching, recording, or stadium staff other than Belichick and maybe owner Robert Kraft. Weirdly, Goodell didn’t bother to call in Eric Mangini a former Pats coach whose team Belichick was taping and would be in a position to know the history and use of the videotapes. Nor did the NFL bring in any current or former Pats players to inquire about how the tapes might have been used to gain an advantage in a game.

 

Now comes word that the NFL, in the process of its investigation, collected all the taping evidence from the Pats and immediately destroyed it.

 

The question becomes why? Was that the ultimate purpose of the “investigation?” Why get rid of the evidence so quickly? Why get rid of the evidence at all? And why not explain or describe what the league found on the Patriots’ materials.

 

At the very least, the NFL’s actions give the appearance of a cover up. But again, why would the most savvy professional sports league make itself look like it is hiding something?

 

The explosive answer is, cause it actually is trying to hide something. Evidence of the Patriots cheating in any or all of their Super Bowl “wins.”

 

ESPN’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback poses it thusly: “The lack of answers leaves several questions hanging out there. Chief among them: Is it possible the Patriots' tapes showed some evidence of New England cheating in a Super Bowl?”

 

In fact, read the entire TMQ column where Gregg Easterbrook lays out the questionable timeline of events, the Patriots surprising lack of cooperation in the probe, and his repeated questions to the NFL spokesman, complete with the spokesman’s evasions and non-denial denials, about this potentially explosive possibility.

 

Here are the key issues from TMQ: “After Aiello twice declined to say what the Patriots' materials showed, I heard from him a third time Sunday. He wrote in an e-mail that my assumption the tapes contained indications of Super Bowl cheating is "wrong," then wrote, "There is no such evidence regarding the Patriots' Super Bowl victories." So, is this the denial that I've been seeking? But wait: Three days earlier, the NFL destroyed the evidence. I asked Aiello whether he meant there is no evidence now of New England cheating in a Super Bowl -- that is, after the destruction of the files -- or whether examination of the materials positively affirmed no cheating. He did not reply.

 

Aiello's " On Sunday, Sept. 16, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell went on national TV and promised he would get to the bottom of the Patriots' sign-stealing. Four days later, the NFL announced all videotapes and other spying materials compiled by the Patriots had been obtained by the league and destroyed. Goodell, who until then had been very upfront in addressing the Beli-Cheat scandal, didn't go back on television to say what the tapes contained; the commissioner has been in radio silence about the Patriots since the files arrived at the NFL's Park Avenue headquarters. The league acted in a hurry to dispose of damning documents, but has not revealed what was in the tapes and notes, nor said why there was a rush to get rid of them….There is no such evidence" phrasing calls to mind what Richard Nixon's attorney general John Mitchell dubbed the "non-denial denial," an assertion that seems to say something but doesn't. On Sunday, I asked Aiello whether the league would make a simple, declarative statement that the spying files proved the Patriots did not cheat in a Super Bowl -- and have not heard back from him. I assume this is not because he has forgotten: I've heard from Park Avenue sources that the fact I am asking these questions is very much on the NFL's radar. I have known Aiello professionally for years and, like others who deal with him, have always found him skilled, knowledgeable and forthright. It's very odd to be getting a "non-denial denial" from him now.

 

I further asked Aiello who had examined the New England materials before they were destroyed, and he would answer only "senior members of the league office staff." I asked when the materials actually arrived at league headquarters -- How long were they there before being destroyed? -- and he would not answer. I asked whether the materials had been inspected by anyone conversant with the game plans and signals the Rams, Panthers and Eagles used against Bill Belichick's Patriots in the Super Bowl; football signs and terminology are cryptic, so it would help to have a skilled eye. Aiello wouldn't answer that. I asked who had ordered the tapes and notes destroyed, and he wouldn't answer that, either.

 

And I asked, if there was nothing incriminating in the New England documents, why was the league in such a hurry to shred them? First, Aiello wrote, "The purpose of destroying the tapes and related documents was to eliminate any advantage they might have given the Patriots going forward and ensure a level playing field for all 32 teams." But the league announced last week that the Patriots "certified in writing" that no copies of the materials exist. If the sole copies of the sign-stealing materials had been sent to the league office, it would be impossible for these materials to give the Patriots any advantage. When I pointed that out, Aiello countered that the reason for the destruction was "so that our clubs would know they no longer exist and cannot be used by anyone." Again, if the sole copies were being held by the league, how could any club use the material?”

 

Lost amid all of this efforts to protect the Patriots and the league’s “integrity” is the fact that the NFL is doing a disservice to its other members – in particular the Panthers, Rams, and Eagles – who may have been victims of the Patriots nefarious and duplicitous cheating. The NFL owes as much to these teams as it does the Patriots – regardless of how much Roger Goodell owes his job to Robert Kraft. The next big question becomes why are the Panthers, Rams, and Eagles owners seeking to get to the bottom of it all?