Goodell is biting off more than he can chew. Or perhaps he is saying this to quiet the critcs of his destruction of the tapes? Unless Goodell is taking this approach to fend off Specter and the spygate controversy, he may be starting a war on two flanks, which does not usually end up well.
First, there have been many comments and links on other threads that attempts to uncover what the other team is doing has a very long history in the NFL. He tried to stem it when the Jets complained back in September, and it created a furor that he was not prepared to handle.
Second, the Spygate story appears to be dying. If that is the case, then why would he make this announcement now?
Third, in
another thread there is written a theory that Comcast is using espn to go after the Patriots due to Kraft's being on the NFL's television committee. The four letter network wants to squash a would be competitor, the NFLN and at the same time Comcast wants the Sunday ticket. There's a lot of opinion and assumptions, but the theory certainly makes sense.
http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showthread.php?t=79211
Fourth, in conjunction with the paragraph above is the theory that the Pats are
"freezing out" espn. A lot of opinion and no hard facts, but the dots do connect.
http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showthread.php?t=79158
Fifth, if Goodell is going to take these measures, is he going to do the same with other rules violations? Is he going to have his team arrive announced and take a look at e-mails and phone calls to players that were signed 21 minutes after they became free agents, for example? A memo was sent to all teams about tampering, is that going to be enforced just as vigorously? Will he enforce the rule that Parcells is apparently breaking in asking BC for tapes of Matt Ryan?
Back to my original statement, I think Goodell may be in over his head. It appears that right now he needs to concentrate on the NFLN/comcast and the espn/patriots situations, which may very well be related in one great big back room hardball big bucks negotiation. Or maybe Goodell is doing this to throw the media a bone and divert attention away from the real story.
I know this is a whole lot of conjecture right now - which we are well aware of how that works - but I do have two theories. First, I'm willing to listen, but right now I want some more proof about the comcast/espn conspiracy against the nfln and the pats. Second, I do believe that Goodell is in over his head, based simply on the fact that these stories are coming to light and being taken seriously (as well as the botched handling of spygate.)
Sorry for the long ramble, I'm just typing as all these things come to mind ...