Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando
Sen. Arlen Specter says he has "a lot of questions" for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the league's handling of Spygate. Reporters grilled Goodell pretty thoroughly during his Super Bowl press conference. The difference this time is that Specter will have Goodell's undivided attention, with the ability to follow up at his discretion. The big question, of course, is why the league destroyed the Spygate tapes. I still haven't heard an explanation that explains why destroying the tapes was in the best interests of the league.
Goodell told reporters he destroyed the tapes because they were no longer of use to the league and "it was the best way to make sure the Patriots followed my instructions. I wanted to make sure that bit of information did not appear, that if it did, (the league knew) they did not hand over all the inforamtion. They certified in writing" that all evidence had been handed over to the league.
Some of the evidence made its way onto Fox television. Additional copies of those tapes obviously existed beyond the NFL's control. What, then, was accomplished by destroying the NFL's copies?
As Goodell said: "We thought we had locked it up and it got out five days later. That was one of my concerns. We thought we had a chain of command that would not have been broken. ... Unfortunately, that weekend it appeared on television and we were disappointed in that."
Also, if anyone has a link to the clips that appeared on Fox, please pass it along. In the meantime, here's a version meant to be humorous.
