According to a report on Tuesday it appears that Senator Arlen Specter wants an independent investigation of the Patriots’ taping of opposing coaches’ signals, which he says should be similar to the Mitchell Report on performance enhancing drugs in baseball.

Apparently he doesn’t understand what he’s pushing for. The Mitchell report was not a report drafted to go after an individual. It was a report that was a blanket investigation that targeted the entire league and contained the names of many different players who were discovered to be using steroids.

A blanket investigation is something that every fan in New England would have liked to have seen from the beginning. The problem was that it never occurred, and instead it was the Patriots who were singled out. So now I’m sure many of the teams who were likely using similar tactics have long since changed their ways after the New England got nabbed.

Imagine a room full of people sitting down and looking at sideline video of every single game from the past decade, with all of them trying to find individuals with cameras, and then having them try to figure out who was supposed to be there and who wasn’t. I have to believe that other teams would finally be caught as well. The thought of that would finally bring to light the fact that despite how smart head coach Bill Belichick is, he’s probably not the guy who pioneered this method of espionage.

Specter again reportedly criticized the league’s handling of the investigation and threatened the possibility of revoking the NFL’s antitrust exemption during a news conference Wednesday. The senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee met with former New England video assistant Matt Walsh a day earlier.

According to published reports NFL commissioner Roger Goodell indicated he considered the investigation over after his meeting with Walsh on Tuesday.

All I have to say is that if he’s planning on wasting time and energy figuring out what fans already know, then be my guest. I’m personally looking forward to reading about other teams who used similar tactics so the rest of the world realize that all NFL coaches use some method of signal stealing. The thing that leaves me shaking my head is that the everyone acts like New England was the only one capable of this. It’s ridiculous.

Now Specter seems to be hell-bent on crucifying the guy who beat his team in Superbowl XXXIX. Unfortunately he will need to be intelligent enough to realize that the Mitchell report was a blanket investigation, and he will only take a negative spotlight away from the team he seems to be trying to destroy as more and more teams would probably be found using tactics that likely date back into the early years of the league.

But as a New England fan this is one of the few things I agree with him on. I said this a while ago and will say it again, fair is fair. I honestly thought that there would have been a broader investigation when this all started back in September, but instead it focused only on the Patriots. I truly believed that commissioner Roger Goodell dropped the ball and instead used New England to send a message to the rest of the league because he knew that the Patriots weren’t the only ones doing it. They were the only ones foolish enough to get caught.

So bring it on. Let the names of the rest of teams be revealed, and when it’s realized that nearly the entire league has a guy in the stands or on the sidelines who’s wearing a mustache and glasses and trying to figure out what their opponent is doing it will only make this matter disappear even more.

Hopefully Spector realizes what it is he’s asking for. Just imagine….how nice would it be if an investigation revealed his beloved Eagles used cameras against the Patriots in Superbowl XXXIX? One can only hope.

The Boston Herald finally released an apology on Wednesday, with “Sorry Pats” & “Our Mistake” posted on the front and back cover of the newspaper.

Sorry guys, it’s really too little too late.

I really have to say that Herald reporter John Tomase made a bad decision to go to his editor with that report. To not realize what a damaging story he held in his hands which came before one of the most anticipated games in NFL history (not to mention the chance for the newspaper’s home team to finish off a perfect season) was a big mistake, especially without the necessary facts to back it up.

I understand the sensationalism that surrounds the media, as well as this type of story being a “make or break” opportunity for the career of a reporter like Mr. Tomase. I will say that all the blame can’t fall on his shoulders, as it was up to his editor to look at the facts surrounding this accusation and make an educated decision on whether or not to run the article in the first place.

Unfortunately they decided to run it anyway. And now Mr. Tomase will be forever linked to one of the biggest sports stories that will live on in infamy for fans in New England. Let’s face it, other than the controversy that took place last year and that weekend, the 2007 season will become a forgotten year due to that one loss that destroyed what could have been one of the greatest seasons in team & NFL history. Instead it’s a season that fans have already swept under the rug in hopes of having something better to remember in 2008.

For Belichick and the team, that one day must have been a complete nightmare. While the Patriots may say it had no outcome on their preparations, I’m guessing having every journalist from here to Antarctica converged in one city with that one headline to run had to have some negative effect. There are many reporters whom I’m sure have some contacts inside the organization, whether it be a player, assistant coach, or someone else. Stacy James (the team’s spokesperson) must have gotten very little sleep that weekend. I would have to believe even Bill Belichick had to deal with a lot of ill-timed phone calls and interruptions of some form that may have made his life far more difficult than it needed to be.

Yet when it was over, all of those same reporters have now all been left with egg on their face. The witch hunt for Belichick is over, and all of those same people now have nothing left to talk about after even Matt Walsh corroborated Belichick’s explanation of the team’s video useage to the commissioner during Tuesday’s meeting. It appears that Belichick indeed came clean, much to the dismay of those were looking for some new revelation to crucify him.

You can see the disappointment and frustration watching TV & listening to the media. While many of them have all been anxiously awaiting a tape of the famous “walkthrough video”, they’re all left with a “nothing new to see here”, which gives them nothing to publish. It leaves them all turning now and looking at Mr. Tomase who went from someone who gave them all a big story to run with, to a person that has embarrassed them all. But even moreso he has embarrassed his employer, which is a newspaper that is already in financial trouble.

Owner Robert Kraft, who appeared on CNBC on Wednesday, was amazingly reserved during a television appearance on CNBC on Wednesday. Mr. Kraft called the original story “very damaging” and said he was glad the Herald admitted it’s mistake.

The apology is laughable, with the paper saying, “While the Boston Herald based its Feb. 2, 2008, report on sources that it believed to be credible, we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walkthrough ever existed.”

“Prior to the publication of its Feb. 2, 2008, article, the Boston Herald neither possessed nor viewed a tape of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI, nor did we speak to anyone who had. We should not have published the allegation in the absence of firmer verification.”

“The Boston Herald regrets the damage done to the team by publication of the allegation, and sincerely apologizes to its readers and to the New England Patriots’ owners, players, employees and fans for our error.”

Sorry guys. You don’t get to say “Oops” on something like this.

Many wonder now if the Patriots will sue the newspaper in light of this apology. I would have to believe that someone high up within the newspaper would have had to have made a personal phone call to Mr. Kraft since it’s hard for me to believe that just running a published apology on an accusation of that magnitude would be enough. It would have been fun to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation. I mean the team suffered a major hit to its’ reputation which was coupled with a loss that likely cost them millions upon millions of dollars in merchandising. Quite honestly the question of whether or not they have enough to successfully succeed in a lawsuit is hard to say. Considering the reported current financial state of the newspaper, even if they did win it would probably be like trying to get blood from a rock.

Personally, I really don’t expect to see the team pursue any legal recourse. I’m sure Mr. Kraft knows that a lawsuit like that would only draw more attention to an issue that I’m sure he’s ready to see finally go away. If nothing else there are some who have poked fun at the notion of cutting the Herald reporters off completely from media access to Gillette and the team altogether. After all, they snubbed ESPN during the NFL Draft…wouldn’t they do the same to a publication that caused them great angst?

Time will tell. But at least the madness appears to be over. But the damage has been done, and it’s going to take more than a “Sorry Pats” to make up for it.