by Michael Daly

Created on: June 23, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

It may be the longest and most maddening controversy in pro sports. Videogate, Spygate, call it what you will, it is a controversy that refuses to go away because a lot of people won't let it go away. Most recently a US Senator, Arlen Specter, entered the fray by publically questioning the integrity of the NFL' hanling of the issue. He was right, but for the wrong reasons.

The passage of time has clarified some of the contentiousness involved, but the fundamentals remain and in the process one has found reasons to raise doubts about Comissioner Roger Goodell. The controversy stems from the practice by the Patriots of taping opposing coaches from game sidelines. Much has been made about a memo sent out by the NFL days before the 2007 season began, a memo warning teams not to tape opposing sidelines. Lost in the entire controversy is a fundamental point best made by sports law professor Jeffrey Standen - Goodell's memo grossly misstated the rule in question.

The rule in question has been misstated ad nauseum by the mainstream media since the controversy first erupted. Taping opposing coaches and signals from sidelines is not barred by the NFL rulebook or league bylaws, and the whole controversy about "stealing signals" is stupid to begin with because signals are being flashed in the open - there is nothing sacrosanct about them; what is barred is in-game use of such tape, which is not practical to start with as turnaround time needed to break down recently shot footage is to great to make any use of it; claims to the contrary by former player Mark Schlereth are laughably inaccurate.

Where this controversy became a circus lay in a perfect storm of league-wide jealousy of Bill Belichick and the arrogant clumsiness of Goodell. Goodell dragooned the Patriots into handing over tapes they hadshot along with related notes; when one tape was leaked to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports (whose parent company employs Goodell's wife Jane Skinner), the embarassment of inability to secure such items led to their destruction. But the Mainstream Media, campaigning to lynch Bill Belichick, didn't let the issue die, they just let it stay on the back burner until Superbowl XLII when the NY Times and Boston Herald published stories about former videographer Matt Walsh and assertion that the Patiots had illegally taped the pre-game walkthrough of the St. Louis Rams beore Superbowl XXXVI. The story was implausble from the beginning as security for the Superbowl makes such taping impossible

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