SPECTER NOT DONE WITH SPYGATE
Posted by Michael David Smith on June 6, 2008, 12:04 p.m.
Although the Spygate story appears to be fading away as people in and around the NFL turn their focus to the 2008 season, Senator Arlen Specter isn’t done with the issue.
Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, entered a statement into the Congressional Record on Thursday in which he repeated what he had said at a press conference last month: He thinks the NFL should conduct a thorough investigation of the New England Patriots’ filming of opponents, but if the NFL doesn’t act, Congress might.
“My strong preference is for the NFL to activate a Mitchell-type investigation,” Specter’s statement said. “I have been careful not to call for a Congressional hearing because I believe the NFL should step forward and embrace an independent inquiry and Congress is extraordinarily busy on other matters If the NFL continues to leave a vacuum, Congress may be tempted to fill it.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, however, has made clear that he thinks the league has already investigated the matter thoroughly, and that there’s no need for the league to follow in the footsteps of Major League Baseball’s Mitchell Commission, which investigated the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the sport.
And that means that there are two possibilities: Either Specter convinces his colleagues in Washington to join him in holding hearings, or the Spygate issue is over.
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