Specter: No Senate Hearings Planned on Spygate

I'm sure he had backlash from even eagles fans. It embarrasing to say the least

juny said:

I am totally disgusted by this ***** clown. First he has extremely poor taste in timing his announcement 2 days before the biggest day in football. And now he doesn't have the cajones to follow up on his own action. I guess he just wanted to throw the Pats off their game for revenge for his precious eagles.

OT -- anything happen with the jets fans lawsuit? I imagine it was thrown out but don't remember seeing anything about it.

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There were actually some fans who claimed it wasn't Specter's fault regarding the timing of his assault. These people blamed Goodell because he never responded to Specter's letter which is a load of crap. It may have even been 2 letters but either way, letters just don't demand immediate action.

Specter is not the all powerful Oz in this country. Had he sent me a letter, I probably would not have responded either. Let's face it, letters don't motivate people to act. If it's a serious issue, Specter should have contacted Goodell personally. Again, he's not that important of a man that people will jump just because they receive a "letter or two" from his office.

patsacolachick said:

Seriously, the undeserved hatred of BB by the media puts him squarely in the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" category. I wonder why it is that he hates the media so

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EXACTLY!! Just because "the media" feels BB owes them some answers doesn't mean he really does. If I were to think about putting myself in his place, I wouldn't give them any answers either. Goodell is the man who gives the answers in such situations and he did just that.

Let's face it, what the media wanted to see was Bill Belichik acting "humbled & embaressed" in front of them. They wanted to see him repentive & vulnerable.

Well.....

F**K the media!! I support every single manner in which BB has responded to Spygate. The media doesn't deserve ANYTHING. Seriously, who TF do they think they are?

When Walsh is finally proven to be a liar and we find he has no new information, I really wish Belichik would stand before a huge media gathering with a big 'ol smile on his face and say,

"I know you've all been waiting & wanting for me to answer your questions on spygate. I know you feel you all deserve to know more than you have been told. But that's just tough shrit!"

In reference to this post. About all I can find concerning Specters appearance on WIP is this interview that was posted on Monday evening (2/18/02) at 8:22 by the Hugging Harold Reynolds blogsite. Although not the complete interview, it mentions nothing concerning Senate hearings. However, he does say that the Patriots may have violated the "Industrial Espionage Act of 1996". To be truthful, during the interview he does come off sounding like a disgruntled Eagles fan more than the defender of "Life, Liberty, and the Persuit of Happiness".

Senator Spector on WIP

I have seen no confirmation of this info anywhere.

No link yet?

Govt. is back open for business today. Lets see what happens.

I sent my letters Sat..so I hope others as well sent theirs...

DamnYankee57 said:

In reference to this post. About all I can find concerning Specters appearance on WIP is this interview that was posted on Monday evening (2/18/02) at 8:22 by the Hugging Harold Reynolds blogsite. Although not the complete interview, it mentions nothing concerning Senate hearings. However, he does say that the Patriots may have violated the "Industrial Espionage Act of 1996". To be truthful, during the interview he does come off sounding like a disgruntled Eagles fan more than the defender of "Life, Liberty, and the Persuit of Happiness".

Senator Spector on WIP

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I listened to the whole interview although it does get cut off at the 10 minute mark. The only thing he said is that he is not going after the NFL's antitrust exemption at this point. He did get cut off at the point where he was trying to minimize what he has done so far so it could have been said after the clip got cut off.

Although "Hugging Harold Reynolds" thinks Specter did a great job, I have some issues with this. Ok, I am not a lawyer, but I did study the Industrial Espionage Act back in grad school. There is no way you can ever get a conviction of the Patriots. A company need to take steps to protect the trade secret for another person or company or team to violate this law. Stealing defensive signals definitely wouldn't be covered since they are exposing their "trade secret" in front of 60-70k people in the stands and on national TV. Even if the Rams walkthrough was taped, I doubt you could bring charges since there were pool reporters attending the walkthrough which meant the Rams didn't take proper steps to protect their trade secret.

Rob0729 said:

A company need to take steps to protect the trade secret for another person or company or team to violate this law. Stealing defensive signals definitely wouldn't be covered since they are exposing their "trade secret" in front of 60-70k people in the stands and on national TV. Even if the Rams walkthrough was taped, I doubt you could bring charges since there were pool reporters attending the walkthrough which meant the Rams didn't take proper steps to protect their trade secret.

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I don't think it has legs either. All you hear about is how teams attempt to steal signals throughout the NFL. If this is the case, then wouldn't all teams that attempt to steal signals also be be in violation of this act? Does attempting to videotape signals make Belichick and the Patriots any more guilty than, say, the Dolphins last year when they aquired audible tapes prior to playing the Patriots? What I heard from the interview was a sour grapes Eagles fan grasping at straws for their Super Bowl loss.
I think the best question posed to Senator Specter was the example of Giants/Cowboys match up compared to the Patriots/Steelers match up.

DropKick Flutie said:

No link yet?

Govt. is back open for business today. Lets see what happens.

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I hope you sent your letters in as well drop kick! I'm serious.

groundgame said:

I have seen no confirmation of this info anywhere.

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In all seriousness, this thing is not going to he senate. Lets have some common sense here. This is not akin to steroids, it is akin to the Senate calling hearings for stealing pitching signals in baseball...as a matter of fact, it is the EXACT same thing.

Specter knows he can't just investigate an incident involving one team when we all know this has been a way of life for NFL coaches. Let the opposing team's fans & coaches stop being so smug & hypocritical.

And no, it does not matter that the Patriots are the ones who were caught. That is utterly & completely STUPID & IGNORANT!

Re: Specter says no Senate Hearings Planned on Spygate

Bella*chick said:

That article is an incredible find, Joe. Did you send it to anyone else?

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You know I didn't - just Mike Florio and I know Pats1 sent it to him as well.

I really should - at least sending it to Reiss.

This is the sort of thing that should really make other team fans shut the F up realizing how far back this sort of thing goes, how common it is, and how likely it is their own teams have done things much much worse than anything the Patriots are alleged to have done.

http://www.thesportgallery.com/sport-stories/1967aug-nflspy.html

For Specter to announce he won't go after the NFL's antitrust exemption, as one previous poster said, is fairly pivotal.

It takes away the biggest hammer he can hit Goodell/the League with. It looks like 1 of 2 things, if we have no confirmation that he's letting the whole thing die:

1) He's going to hope everybody forgets what a butthead he is, as the OP implies (i.e., going to let the civil suits be the extent of it,) or,

2) He's made a deal with Goodell to let him through without too much friction, and he'll pretty much pursue the matter as an Eagles fan instead of a Comcast shill. I.e., the league doesn't get its nose too bloody if it takes a dive as far as the Pats are concerned.

I don't think (2) is likely, because Specter shouldn't be able to make the hearing happen at all, at this stage of the game... so Goodell would be better off stonewalling for the time being.

Eh, who knows. Live and learn, die and forget it all.

PFnV

PatriotsReign said:

I hope you sent your letters in as well drop kick! I'm serious.

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What letters would those be? To Specter or Tomase? They are both pretty hated around here.

Congress will never take away the NFL's anti-trust exemption because then they lose the ability to threaten to take away the anti-trust exemption whenever they need the Commish to jump through hoops

Why does ESPN keep parading Clayton on all their shows as if he is the expert on "spygate" ????

All he does is repeat the same old crap day after day.

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=&categoryId=2459789

Specter never had any authority to investigate anything. He was just posturing for his master, Comcast.

DropKick Flutie said:

What letters would those be? To Specter or Tomase? They are both pretty hated around here.

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That was tongue-in-cheek dropkick...

BPF said:

Why does ESPN keep parading Clayton on all their shows as if he is the expert on "spygate" ????

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Easy. Anyone can cover a story when you don't need facts or insight. Have you noticed recently that ESPN has been covering the comments by Belichick that taping an opponents walkthrough would have no impact on gameplanning? Even a "Good Call, Bad Call" poll on "Did the Patriots taping of opponents have minimal impact".

Too bad Belichick was talking about taping opponents sideline activity and not taping a practice...which Belichick explicitly denied ever doing.

Clayton hasn't had inside information in quite a while...peaking with his declaration that there is no way Antonio Gates would be able to play until at least the AFCC game. Now he just takes a conclusion ("Walsh has a bombshell and will reveal it soon. Stay tuned.") and makes up facts and analysis to fit the conclusion.

At least Mort realized that becoming the NFL/Patriots hatchet boy would not be a positive career move. Clayton has filled in to keep himself relevant.

Has there BEEN comfirmation about no hearings or that Spector was pulling back a bit?? Haven't seen a thing in any of the papers about this...some back room deal??