Here's Florio's take

[SVN]

i vowed not to visit his site after videogate II but in light of the BB article went there to check.

http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm

needless to say i wont visit again. He seems to have a problem of BB talking too much. And when then they say he doesnt talk to the media.

But, right now, the only question that anyone still cares about arising from the five-month-old incident is what tapes or other materials Belichick gave to the league, and why the stuff was promptly destroyed.

Belichick didn't address any of those issues on Sunday. It's unclear whether he ever will in a setting other than a Congressional hearing room. Or a courtroom.

 

[upstater1]

Florio is the type of person that failed basic writing classes. His logic is addled, almost like his brain is incapable of processing information.

Why would Belichick be called to account for why the NFL destroyed the tapes? Belichick didn't do that. The NFL did.

Goodell's response may not be great, but he's the one responsible for it. As far as I've heard, Goodell said he couldn't tell whether the info in the notes was all gleaned from videotapes or observation without taping, so he destroyed all of it (fruit of the poisoned tree).

What I find interesting is that in this quote Goodell admits that stealing signals is legal.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Florio purposefully plays dumb sometimes (and more often, unpurposefully)

In this case he knows that the press conference wasn't to address the question of why the NFL destroyed the tapes - that's not BB's question to answer.

In this case the press conference was to establish that Matt Walsh engaged in espionage practices that were not authorized by the team... and that if he has any more tapes, they too were not authorized by the team.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

this is idiotic. why would he have to answer to something that's not his business. he didn't destroy the tapes.

 

[DarrylS]

My take on why they were destroyed is that Goodell in his rush to judgement overstepped the value of the tapes and the tapes showed other teams doing the same thing.. to protect the "integrity" of the game he destroyed them.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

It's so funny -- the taking of the tapes and notes (and subsequently destroying them) was part of the punishment.

Now it's being portrayed as though Goodel was doing Belichick a favor.

I'm sure the Patriots would love it if the tapes still existed.

 

[BradyManny]

I don't know why I click on all these spygate threads. All they do is make me wonder how the hell all these mediots are employed. Then I realize it is because of the same phenomenon that led to the aforementioned clicking on thread...

 

[Rob0729]

Florio runs a gossip and rumor site. He need to focus on the controversy. It's like Star Magazine trying to blow up anything Britney Spears does into another psychotic breakdown. It's good for business.

I thought he made some good points, but then went over board to generate controversy. I agree with him that it would be no advantage to taping your own walkthrough, but to say Belichick is overexplaining while implying Belichick may be hiding something is just bad journalism and showing his bias.

Personally, I don't think Belichick is in the position to explain why the tapes were destroyed. It was Goodell's decision and he explained why he did it whether you want to believe him or not.

As a lawyer, Florio should know that Belichick will not be able to speak to why Goodell decided to destroy the tapes in a court of law or Congress. Belichick cannot speak to Goodell's state of mind.

 

[SVN]

Florio runs a gossip and rumor site. He need to focus on the controversy. It's like Star Magazine trying to blow up anything Britney Spears does into another psychotic breakdown. It's good for business.

I thought he made some good points, but then went over board to generate controversy. I agree with him that it would be no advantage to taping your own walkthrough, but to say Belichick is overexplaining while implying Belichick may be hiding something is just bad journalism and showing his bias.

Personally, I don't think Belichick is in the position to explain why the tapes were destroyed. It was Goodell's decision and he explained why he did it whether you want to believe him or not.

As a lawyer, Florio should know that Belichick will not be able to speak to why Goodell decided to destroy the tapes in a court of law or Congress. Belichick cannot speak to Goodell's state of mind.

he runs a gossip site but he also makes appearances on the dan patrick show etc so his word just spreads . He has an amazing business model. Read the papers, watch tv. Provide your own interpretation and get famous.

 

[Sam Malone]

Thanks for reminding me why that site is no longer in my bookmarks

 

[Metaphors]

It's so funny -- the taking of the tapes and notes (and subsequently destroying them) was part of the punishment.

Now it's being portrayed as though Goodel was doing Belichick a favor.

I'm sure the Patriots would love it if the tapes still existed.

It really isn't all that hard to understand. The tapes and notes were the property of the Patriots and contained proprietary information. Once out of their possession, that information must be considered unsecured (never trust anyone else) and could be used in any number of ways to cause the Patriots damage. I imagine the only way the Patriots would agree to give up this material would be to have it reviewed and subsequently destroyed in Foxboro...which is exactly what happened.

There was no way the material could be left in the Pats possession and there was no way the Pats would let the material out of their possession with a legal order to do so. Since no sane person would ever think this situation could result in a criminal or congressional investigation, keeping the material intact didn't make much sense.

 

[PF1996]

It really isn't all that hard to understand. The tapes and notes were the property of the Patriots and contained proprietary information. Once out of their possession, that information must be considered unsecured (never trust anyone else) and could be used in any number of ways to cause the Patriots damage. I imagine the only way the Patriots would agree to give up this material would be to have it reviewed and subsequently destroyed in Foxboro...which is exactly what happened.

There was no way the material could be left in the Pats possession and there was no way the Pats would let the material out of their possession with a legal order to do so. Since no sane person would ever think this situation could result in a criminal or congressional investigation, keeping the material intact didn't make much sense.

Thank you! I was wondering whether I was the only one who thought "why NOT destroy the tapes and the notes"? What purpose would be served for Goodell to hold on to "evidence" when he had already made a decision and no appeals were allowed/forthcoming from the Patriots? What's ironic is that I don't recall any of the Pats' haters questioning Goodell's judgment when he handed down his fines/took away the pick. No one said, "we need to see the tape to decide for ourselves if the Pats are guilty/this punishment isn't too harsh". No one questioned what was going to happen to THAT tape before it was leaked. However, it's only when Goodell doesn't levy additional punishment against the Pats that his judgment becomes "questionable" and he's trying to "protect the Pats". Ignoring of course that the easiest/best "coverup" would have been a small fine without a request for additional tapes/notes.