NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed! [mergedx4]

[PatsFaninAZ]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

BB probably kept some if not all of the tapes at his home. If they are in his house, Goodell wouldn't be a able to do a damned thing, even if he found out.

How exactly is that?

The story says the NFL required the patriots to sign a statement that they had complied. I imagine if it were discovered they did not, the commissioner would have vast power to hammer them, and I imagine he would do exactly that.

If the Patriots signed a statement with the NFL that said they did something they did not do, I do not think there is any sanction we could rightfully complain about, including a ban from the league for those involved. It would be the most blatent violation imaginable. On what possible ground do you say that Goodell wouldn't be able to do a thing? I think absolutely nothing would be off limits.

That said, I am virtually certain that lawyers were involved in this, and this is an extremely common circumstance in the law. You are required to turn over documents, and you do it. You certify that you do it. There is nothing to ensure that you do it or to keep from destroying information, other than certain knowledge that if you, by some chance, are caught, you will be hammered and possibly disbarred.

I also wouldn't be surprised at all if the Patriots were required to make their "written statement" of compliance under penalty of perjury, which would turn noncompliance from a league matter into a criminal matter.

There is no part of me that believes that, having signed a statement, the patriots have not done exactly what they said they would do, and that nobody associated with the team is stupid enough to blatently disregard a league directive in this manner. I take Belichick fully at his word when asked about compliance when he said, "of course," and Kraft has spent enough time around lawyers and document productions to not be as stupid as some of you are suggesting.

 

[He Ban Me]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

This is odd. Why would Goodell ask for them, and then just destroy them. When a case is solved, do they just destroy all the evidence? I realize this would be hundreds of hours of work to review, but you'd think he would want to take a look. Tapes destroyed=Swept under the rug. Plus, it will truely never be over*.

 

[Stop Being A Jerk]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

This forum needs to get Reiss' updates automatically posted here.

 

[Fencer]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

Well, if that was the case, there isn't anything Goodell could do. If word got out that he did that, there would still be no proff and Goodell can't get a search warrent.

Unless he had witnesses in the form of disgruntled ex-employees.

 

[signbabybrady]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

This is odd. Why would Goodell ask for them, and then just destroy them. When a case is solved, do they just destroy all the evidence? I realize this would be hundreds of hours of work to review, but you'd think he would want to take a look. Tapes destroyed=Swept under the rug. Plus, it will truely never be over*.

He had to destroy it or it would be leaked to the media....

I hope this means the end of the witch hunt....?

 

[Fencer]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

This is odd. Why would Goodell ask for them, and then just destroy them.

For fear they'd be leaked.

And because they just don't have the facilities and procedures for secure evidence storage, and don't feel like establishing them.

 

[nowayback]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed! [merged]

no reason to think that mangina hasnt been doing this with the jets either. maybe thats why they were better last year. now he has to use his ....um skill...having a bit of a problem so far

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

This is odd. Why would Goodell ask for them, and then just destroy them. When a case is solved, do they just destroy all the evidence? I realize this would be hundreds of hours of work to review, but you'd think he would want to take a look. Tapes destroyed=Swept under the rug. Plus, it will truely never be over*.

You're buying into the reporting of this thing. The sexy story during the Sunday night game was that Goodell had requested the tapes to do a further investigation. But the only person saying that was the press. It was most definitely not what Goodell was saying. I posted here afterwards exactly this while everyone was freaking out about a "witch hunt." When you listened to what the commissioner and the league were saying, instead of the press, it was not that they wished to go through the Patriots dirty laundry, but instead that they wished to ensure that, as part of the sanction, the patriots were not allowed to profit from their mistaken "interpretation" of the rules.

Accordingly, once Belichick defended the Jets tape by offering his "interpretation," Goodell said, "no, that's wrong -- and it seems to me to be a conscious attempt to skirt the intent of the rule, so I'm going to fine you and take a draft pick." This is what the league release about the sanctions says. Moreover, Goodell said, to the extent you have been using this "interpretation" to make other tapes, you can't keep them. Your interpretation was wrong, and these tapes are essentially ill gotten gains, so you can't have them.

That's all the "other tapes" issue has ever been about -- not about any kind of witch hunt or league attempt to investigate more alleged rule breaking.

The press not only is too stupid to get these things right, they have an interest in painting them to be something they are not. Don't buy into it.

 

[BigSee93]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed! [merged]

So who's going to be the first media fraud/talking head to bring up the cover up angle? I hope it does get put to rest once and for all. Not that it should have ever have become the runaway "story" it became..
Like they say..."When you're on top,everybody's gunning for ya"...

 

[tombonneau]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed! [merged]

So who's going to be the first media fraud/talking head to bring up the cover up angle? I hope it does get put to rest once and for all. Not that it should have ever have become the runaway "story" it became..
Like they say..."When you're on top,everybody's gunning for ya"...

If only McNabb's interview had come out 10 days ago ...

 

[BTTA]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

Why would he do that? All the tapes from back then are probably on computers with passwords. The NFL will never find them. Is there any reason to think that the Pats haven't been doing this for years?

There isn't any reason why they wouldn't have...it has been legal for most of the history of the NFL. Only recently was it illegal.

Why they had to give over tapes prior to this year escapes me. Anybody know?

 

[fgssand]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed! [merged]

I guess it is over and that is a GOOD thing, no doubt.

However, there has been so much damage done to the New England Patriots that I will not be happy until we get revenge.

I realize we blatantly video taped after all team were warned not to and were caught.

That said -

Where is the penalty for the leaked tape??

Where is the penalty for the Jets signal shout out Vs the Ravens (apology or not).

Where are the demands that all the other teams turn over their libraries??

When will other teams be dealt with as harshly as we have been for minor infractions??

Where is the statement from the wimp Goodall that we did not "cheat" and merely did what many other teams have done and still are doing??

I will not be happy until the asterisks are removed and the shine is restored to our trophy's.

This has been a witch hunt from day one and heads need to roll - we are not alone.

 

[fair catch fryar]

NFL clears Pats per Reiss

I don't think it's been posted, but this would be good to finally put it to bed and concentrate on football!http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/2007/09/nfl_update.html

 

[He Ban Me]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

You're buying into the reporting of this thing. The sexy story during the Sunday night game was that Goodell had requested the tapes to do a further investigation. But the only person saying that was the press. It was most definitely not what Goodell was saying. I posted here afterwards exactly this while everyone was freaking out about a "witch hunt." When you listened to what the commissioner and the league were saying, instead of the press, it was not that they wished to go through the Patriots dirty laundry, but instead that they wished to ensure that, as part of the sanction, the patriots were not allowed to profit from their mistaken "interpretation" of the rules.

Accordingly, once Belichick defended the Jets tape by offering his "interpretation," Goodell said, "no, that's wrong -- and it seems to me to be a conscious attempt to skirt the intent of the rule, so I'm going to fine you and take a draft pick." This is what the league release about the sanctions says. Moreover, Goodell said, to the extent you have been using this "interpretation" to make other tapes, you can't keep them. Your interpretation was wrong, and these tapes are essentially ill gotten gains, so you can't have them.

That's all the "other tapes" issue has ever been about -- not about any kind of witch hunt or league attempt to investigate more alleged rule breaking.

The press not only is too stupid to get these things right, they have an interest in painting them to be something they are not. Don't buy into it.

Well, that makes a lot of sense. It would still seem to me then, that even if it were privately, Goodell would want to know how far back this went.

In the end, he's the penalty essentially is the same, whether they taped 1 game in this fashion (Jets contest) or 90 some odd games.

I would also think at some point, someone would have asked Goodell point blank if the Patriots admitted to employing this practice routinely, etc...,

 

[nummit]

Re: NFL clears Pats per Reiss

try this link



http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/

 

[fair catch fryar]

Re: NFL clears Pats per Reiss

Bad link......

Sorry 'bout that, thanks for posting the correct link!

 

[signbabybrady]

Re: NFL clears Pats per Reiss

doesnt clear us just means we fully coorperated.

and as i said in another post hopefully ends the witch hunt...

 

[fair catch fryar]

Re: NFL clears Pats per Reiss

doesnt clear us just means we fully coorperated.

and as i said in another post hopefully ends the witch hunt...

Yeah, but I think that this was just for show so Goodell could look official, but really does want this to go away like the rest of us. JC, their gonna have their hands full when Vick finally goes to court in December!!

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

Re: NFL clears Pats per Reiss

ppsted for third time

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

Well, that makes a lot of sense. It would still seem to me then, that even if it were privately, Goodell would want to know how far back this went.

In the end, he's the penalty essentially is the same, whether they taped 1 game in this fashion (Jets contest) or 90 some odd games.

I would also think at some point, someone would have asked Goodell point blank if the Patriots admitted to employing this practice routinely, etc...,

I sort of got the sense from listening to what Goodell was saying during the interview that once the patriots offered their "interpretation" as the defense, he assumed they had not just come up with it for one game. It was reported (by Kraft himself, I believe) that when Belichick made his presentation, the commissioner asked a number of probing questions, and I imagine that this very issue came up and was taken into account in the imposition of the sanction.

The reality is that once Belichick offered his "interpretation" defense, they were kind of stuck having to ride that train to the end of the track. We'll probably never know what happened during the discussion, but I doubt seriously Goodell didn't ask, "how long have you been doing it that way?" Once the patriots decided to go with their interpretation defense, I'm sure the answer was "for a while." And once Goodell asked that question, he surely decided -- legitimately and reasonably in my opinion -- that the tapes should be rounded up and taken from the patriots. Both to deprive the patriots of the tapes and to do exactly what the NFL spokesman said they were doing -- to educate the rest of the league on what was permitted.

I also think, though, that the commissioner was not that bothered by pre-2007 misinterpretations of the rule. I think the entire reason he sent out a memo in the first place was the fact that it was a well-understood fact that people were misinterpreting the rule. I belive that's why he punished the patriots the way he did. He went to the trouble of putting out a memo, and here it was, the first game after that, and the patriots were not complying.

I imagine that Belichick, Kraft, the team's lawyers, and everyone involved understood during the presentation to the NFL last week that candid accurate answers were absolutely required, and I'm sure they were given -- just as I'm extremely confident -- as I sit here right now that if the patriots certified they gave over all tapes, they did exactly that.

But if you want to truly understand this story, stop listening to fans or reporters. Just read the NFL's words -- the statement, the commissioner's interview, the e-mail to Reiss, and the three Aeilo comments from last week. They really tell you every thing you need to know about what this is, and has always, been about -- and it's nothing remotely close to what's been reported.