OK - for a laugh, here was my two cents worth for your reading pleasure - sent to Bob Ryan this morning:
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First, I regard - well, at this juncture, perhaps it is may have become more pertinent to say I did regard - you as a very competent journalist in the general sense as well as in the sports venue.
But this whole affair with the taping is about the most gross injustice I can imagine.
The initial blame is on Goodell who apparently decided what the rules were without bothering to read them. That is reprehensible in the Nth degree. But it is what any realist comes to expect of politicians and lawyers and bureaucrats. They refuse to read any English paragraph or exposition in a grammatical sense - they spend their whole lives trying to twist the meaning of everything that is written.
The secondary blame is on the sports media who also do not seem to be able to read an English paragraph and point out to Goodell what a travesty his whole ruling was - and now I guess that includes you.
Let's simply go back to the basics of what apparently is the actual text of the NFL Constitution/Bylaws and the infamous memo. You willing to do that ??
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[the bolding and underlining are my emphasis]
'In the league's Constitution & Bylaws, it reads: "Any use by any club at any time, from the start to the finish of any game in which such club is a participant, of any communications or information-gathering equipment, other than Polaroid-type cameras or field telephones, shall be prohibited, including without limitation videotape machines, telephone tapping, or bugging devices, or any other form of electronic devices that might aid a team during the playing of a game." '
OK. By it's wording, the proscription in this paragraph IS in relation to: that might aid a team during the playing of a game." Ask any English professor if this paragraph can be construed in a more general sense and they will tell you that the last phrase limits the whole paragraph. You probably don't want to go to that trouble, so use a common sense test. If you read it as a general prohibition, note that information-gathering equipment is not to this day prohibited in general - as we all know, teams make full tapes of the games !! So, to reiterate, this paragraph can only be applied in the context of:: that might aid a team during the playing of a game."
Now, let's go to the infamous September 6, 2006 memo.
'In a memo to NFL head coaches and general managers on Sept. 6, 2006, NFL executive vice president of football operations Ray Anderson wrote: "Videotaping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent's offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches' booth, in the locker room, or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game." '
Are you beginning to see something here ?? This paragraph is completely limited in scope by the last phrase: accessible to club staff members during the game. In plain English, you can't generalize beyond that phrase.
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OK. You are a journalist - you tell me how Goodell with the acceptance of the media treats these written rules in a manner which requires truncating the paragraphs and leaving out the highlighted phrases ??
Bob - this is not a crackpot rant. This is a serious question. Think about it carefully.
Best regards,