The brave little story that would not die.....

[HairOnFire]

Questions Linger About Why N.F.L. Destroyed Patriots’ Tapes

By GREG BISHOP

Published: December 16, 2007

The N.F.L. reacted swiftly to the spying scandal in September. Commissioner Roger Goodell promised on national television that there would be a full investigation of the New England Patriots’ covert filming of Jets defensive signals. He ordered the Patriots to send any videotapes filmed in violation of N.F.L. rules to the league office. The tapes arrived sometime between Sept. 16, when Goodell said he had yet to receive them, and Sept. 20, when the N.F.L. announced all material from the investigation had been destroyed “to ensure a level playing field.” The league has not addressed the tapes since.

Two crisis-management experts used the same word — fishy — to describe the league’s handling of the situation, saying the destruction of the tapes raised questions about what they contained.

“The strategy is profoundly bad,” said Al Tortorella, the managing director of crisis management for Los Angeles-based Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. “I don’t know why they would destroy the tapes. That’s astounding. There’s no criminality here, but it sure doesn’t pass the smell test.”

The Patriots’ videotaping practices became a league issue during the season opener for the teams at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., when Jets security personnel caught a Patriots employee filming the Jets’ defensive signals from the sideline.

Goodell handed down the most severe penalty in N.F.L. history — the loss of a first-round draft pick; a $250,000 fine for the Patriots, which funnels into the league’s general expenses fund; and a $500,000 fine for Coach Bill Belichick, which goes to N.F.L. Charities for medical research and youth fitness programs.

The N.F.L. later clarified that the penalty was for the Patriots’ “totality of conduct” and not only for their actions against the Jets. The league never explained what totality of conduct meant. Presumably, the evidence was on the tapes.

Questions remain: How many tapes showed evidence of cheating? In what games? In the playoffs? In the Super Bowl? By other teams?

The Jets (3-10) and the Patriots (13-0), who will meet Sunday in Foxborough, Mass., declined to comment last week, referring to the matter as a “league issue.” The N.F.L. spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an e-mail message, “We’ve addressed this matter, and we’re not going to readdress it this week.”

Greg Wilson, a crisis counselor and senior vice president at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, said: “They’re rolling the dice that the whole thing is just going to go away. And here’s the thing — a lot of this could be avoided.”

Wilson sees a crisis that requires managing, a “clear-cut case of all the parties needing to rip off the Band-Aid as soon as possible.” The goal of managing any crisis, he said, is to acknowledge the black eye and compress the time it lasts.

Wilson says the American public generally wants to hear what he calls the Big Three of crisis management: I am sorry. I take responsibility. And I will fix it.

He recommended that the league respond with more transparency, explaining in detail what the tapes contained and why they were destroyed.

“When you destroy evidence, most people assume guilt,” Wilson said. “The N.F.L. is cashing in on its trust bank. They can weather the storm, but they are stringing it out longer than most companies or people can afford to.”

Tortorella points to the N.B.A. in comparison. When the referee scandal surfaced earlier this year, Commissioner David Stern went on national television and gave a sincere-sounding apology. In these different reactions, Tortorella said the N.B.A. came down on its crisis like a “ton of bricks” — the N.F.L. like a “ton of feathers.”

“Roger Goodell learned what Richard Nixon did not,” Tortorella said. “If the tapes are destroyed, you keep your job.”

The typical N.F.L. video library contains thousands of tapes. Each team catalogs them in different ways, but there are generally sections for professional games and college games, along with their own games and practices, filmed from a multitude of angles.

According to one team, the N.F.L. asks for practice tapes once or twice a season to see if a team is using players on injured reserve. None of the three teams polled had ever been asked for tapes in the way the Patriots were.

“We had massive amounts of tapes,” Jim Fassel, the former Giants coach, said. “We had a huge room full of them, but they were all organized, so you knew right where to go.”

The Patriots have their own library, from which they sent a certain number of tapes to the league offices. The league will not say how many or what the tapes contained.

The N.F.L. said the Patriots signed a statement that the league was in possession of the only copies of the evidence, all of which have been destroyed. Tortorella said they should not be so sure.

“That might come back to haunt them,” he said. “I know this: nobody ever makes one Xerox copy. Nobody ever makes one tape. Nobody ever makes one set of anything. Based on that, I’m not sure this crisis is over yet.”

Tortorella said what surprised him most was how little scrutiny resulted from the destruction of the tapes. (Gregg Easterbrook of espn.com looked into the issue in September.)

Tortorella said between Spygate and the Michael Vick dogfighting case — a crisis that experts said Goodell managed superbly — “the league gets two black eyes, but neither belongs to him.” Wilson dismissed the Vick scandal as an N.F.L. crisis, but added to the list the health problems retired players are experiencing.

“The problem is the Patriots keep winning,” Wilson said. “That is both a blessing and a curse. By winning, they are vindicating themselves, showing this whole Spygate thing did not matter. But they are also shining a spotlight, over and over again, on what happened earlier this season.

“Spygate will be the biggest story if they win the Super Bowl.”

The Patriots’ perfect season so far, and the taping controversy, have made football fans only care more about the team, said David Carter, the executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California.

“Love them or hate them, you care,” Carter said. “Some people think they represent everything wrong with sports. The N.F.L. walks a fine line here. A certain amount of controversy is helpful. But if it looks like they are not coming down hard enough, they undermine the very credibility they are hoping to promote.”

The case of the destroyed tapes remains unsolved as the teams meet again. Fassel said the saga had been overblown and overanalyzed. At Stanford, he used baseball players to decipher offensive signals from the opposing sideline. Everybody did it, Fassel said.

“It will eventually die down, all this Spygate stuff,” he said. “But it’s going to be there for a while. Every time they win, it’s going to surface.”

[COB]

"The case of the destroyed tapes remains unsolved as the teams meet again."

In case anyone can't figure this out, the tapes showed the Patriots cheated in their Super Bowl years. The league destroyed the evidence to avoid the public relations nightmare that would come with revealing that the competitive integrity of the NFL was comprimised.

There, the case of the destroyed tapes is now solved.

"Tortorella said what surprised him most was how little scrutiny resulted from the destruction of the tapes. (Gregg Easterbrook of espn.com looked into the issue in September.)"

I'm glad someone is finally noticing that the "journalists" who cover the NFL are acting like trained seals. The league is morphing into the WWFL, but all we get to read and hear about is how great Tom Brady and Brett Favre are, and how cruel Michael Vick is for killing puppies. Wait, maybe the fact that most of what we read and hear comes from ESPN, a business partner of the NFL, has something to do with this phenomenon. How much could ESPN lose if the competitve nature of the league's games proved to be less than pure? The answer is how much did ESPN pay to broadcast Monday Night Football. And what kind of revenue do they generate with their countdown shows, their analysis shows, and their highlight shows? That's why we get one guy, Greg Easterbrook, writing one column. Then the whole thing is ignored.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

That's why we get one guy, Greg Easterbrook, writing one column. Then the whole thing is ignored.

And everyone else on ESPN treats Easterbrook like the crazy schizo homeless guy who talks to himself. While he probably went overboard on the column, his point is a fair one - why destroy the evidence if there's nothing to hide? I also think Easterbrook might have been right on his interpretation of Aeillo's verb tense usage when he said 'no evidence of any further cheating exists' AFTER the evidence was destroyed. People acted like Easterbrook was being a pedantic jackass for attacking Aeillo's verb conjugation, but the guy did refuse to answer the follow-up question of whether that evidence USED to exist before it was destroyed.

The fans deserved to see an open investigation of this thing, not have it swept under the rug.

[HairOnFire]

I find it remarkable how quickly ESPN's overall response to the penalties imposed has changed. Immediately after the penalties were announced only Sean Salisbury could be heard ranting that the penalty was too harsh. Most others wondered aloud why their was no suspension for Belicheat and more than one talking head supported the idea of the Patriots forfeiting the Jet game, an act that would have derailed the "Pursuit of Perfection" before it even began. But if you listen now the response has largely morphed into a rant about how the Patriots have been unfairly attacked due to feelings of jealousy.

Still, the story plays out....and you wait to see what the reaction will be if Goodell really does have to hand the Lombardi Trophy to a proven cheater.

[DesperateDerelict]

Great quote from FoxSports: People don't understand why the CIA thought it could get away with destroying those tapes. But hey, it worked for the NFL in Spygate.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

I find it remarkable how quickly ESPN's overall response to the penalties imposed has changed. Immediately after the penalties were announced only Sean Salisbury could be heard ranting that the penalty was too harsh. Most others wondered aloud why their was no suspension for Belicheat and more than one talking head supported the idea of the Patriots forfeiting the Jet game, an act that would have derailed the "Pursuit of Perfection" before it even began. But if you listen now the response has largely morphed into a rant about how the Patriots have been unfairly attacked due to feelings of jealousy.

I think the number of former coaches who have mumbled that it has been done pretty widely for the past 20 years had something to do with that. Not that it makes it right,when a handful of coaches like Jimmy Johnson confessed to doing it, that kind of killed the furor. Also, the story turned into how Mangini is the bigger asshat for 1) benefiting from it when he was with the Patriots, as he clearly knew, and 2) then plunging the knife into Caeser, er, Belichick's back, screwing the guy who got him where he is.

The other thing that has dwarfed spygate: the utterly classless way the Patriots have conducted themselves this season. For me, they've now become an evil combination of the Steelers and Yankees. I hate the bastards.

[ShulaSteakhouse]

"The case of the destroyed tapes remains unsolved as the teams meet again."

In case anyone can't figure this out, the tapes showed the Patriots cheated in their Super Bowl years. The league destroyed the evidence to avoid the public relations nightmare that would come with revealing that the competitive integrity of the NFL was comprimised.

There, the case of the destroyed tapes is now solved.

"Tortorella said what surprised him most was how little scrutiny resulted from the destruction of the tapes. (Gregg Easterbrook of espn.com looked into the issue in September.)"

I'm glad someone is finally noticing that the "journalists" who cover the NFL are acting like trained seals. The league is morphing into the WWFL, but all we get to read and hear about is how great Tom Brady and Brett Favre are, and how cruel Michael Vick is for killing puppies. Wait, maybe the fact that most of what we read and hear comes from ESPN, a business partner of the NFL, has something to do with this phenomenon. How much could ESPN lose if the competitve nature of the league's games proved to be less than pure? The answer is how much did ESPN pay to broadcast Monday Night Football. And what kind of revenue do they generate with their countdown shows, their analysis shows, and their highlight shows? That's why we get one guy, Greg Easterbrook, writing one column. Then the whole thing is ignored.

While I generally agree about ESPN, what would be the point of disclosing the "evidence" from the past in this case? Nothing is gained from it, and there's nothing anyone can do to go back and change it. Taking rings away from the teams is ridiculous, as is retroactively doing much of anything. The video tapes didn't go out on the field and make tackles or affect the game.

The severity of the cheating is relatively obvious (stealing signals that I'm sure changed any ways and were of limited value in many cases). What are you going to do?

The league did the right thing by moving on and handing out immediate punishment. It's something they obviously have under control now. The severity of the punishment can be argued, but I just don't see how the "trashed tapes" is anything worth writing a column about at this point.

[COB]

While I generally agree about ESPN, what would be the point of disclosing the "evidence" from the past in this case? Nothing is gained from it, and there's nothing anyone can do to go back and change it. Taking rings away from the teams is ridiculous, as is retroactively doing much of anything. The video tapes didn't go out on the field and make tackles or affect the game.

The severity of the cheating is relatively obvious (stealing signals that I'm sure changed any ways and were of limited value in many cases). What are you going to do?

The league did the right thing by moving on and handing out immediate punishment. It's something they obviously have under control now. The severity of the punishment can be argued, but I just don't see how the "trashed tapes" is anything worth writing a column about at this point.

You are right, the league did the right thing in handing out punishment and moving on quickly. But how can you say the severity of the cheating is relatively obvious? They destroyed the tapes specifically to keep the severity of the cheating from ever being revealed.

Maybe the tapes held evidence that showed the Pats were listening in to their opponents’ coach-to-quarterback helmet communications. I’d sure like to know if they were.

They should have summarized what was on the tapes. Then the tapes should not have been destroyed. Allow journalists to review them, but not other teams.

As it is now, it appears to me that the league is a co-conspirator, not in the initial cheating, but in the subsequent cover-up. Do you believe the Bengals would have received this same favorable treatment? I don’t trust Goodell to keep his personal feelings out of his decisions.

The problem with the whole coverup is that it makes the league look unfair. Having the NFL tell us, “Don’t worry about it, we gave them the appropriate punishment,” doesn’t make me feel any better. Let me judge for myself if the punishment was appropriate.

I look at the league as a fair competition. And I want it to be completely fair so my team can compete. In contrast, the NFL looks at the league as a product to be packaged, sold, and in this instance, protected. So they do this, thinking they are protecting their product, hiding the imperfections, avoiding any scandal that might affect the profitability.

What Goodell doesn’t understand is that one of the underpinnings to that profitability, one of the pillars that support this lofty platform, is the competitive integrity of the league. It’s what his money machine was built on. Covering up and hiding cheating? WWNFL.

Finally, retroactively punishing by taking away titles, etc., is the ultimate deterrent. It’s messy, it’s not fun, but it works. Ask any current US track athlete if watching Marion Jones getting her medals pulled had any effect on them.

[Dan2330]

Pats 16-0*

[Riagogogoindanati]

Any way you slice it................if the Pats go to and win the SB......

ding ding ding..............we have another winner with an *

IMHO.......you GET CAUGHT cheating in a game......you forfeit the game. In my eyes, the Pats are 13-1 right now.

[COB]

Bump.

Die ESPN. As we all pretty much suspected, the Pats were cheating in their Super Bowl years. A US Senator forced Goodell to talk to him, then the Senator came out and announced that Goodell said Bellicheat admitted that he'd been doing the taping since he'd been with the Pats.

Goodell then announced sure he said that, but this is nothing new. This adds nothing to the story, we've been through this before. WHAT? Can anyone point to one instance in the past where Goodell said the Pats cheated in anything but that Jets game in early '07? No.

Coverup.

So how big does ESPN play this up? How do they report that the Commissioner of the biggest sports league in the US helped conceal the cheating by a club owned by his biggest benafactor, by an owner that by all accounts was his biggest booster when the league selected him as Commissioner?

ESPN carries the water for its business partner by playing the story down, pretty much accepting Goodell's ridiculous claim that this had all been dislosed before, and shoving Roger Clemens' steroid-swelled head down our throats.

Sports journalism is dead. Cosell is spinning in his grave.

[SteelerFan87]

Bump.

Die ESPN. As we all pretty much suspected, the Pats were cheating in their Super Bowl years. A US Senator forced Goodell to talk to him, then the Senator came out and announced that Goodell said Bellicheat admitted that he'd been doing the taping since he'd been with the Pats.

Goodell then announced sure he said that, but this is nothing new. This adds nothing to the story, we've been through this before. WHAT? Can anyone point to one instance in the past where Goodell said the Pats cheated in anything but that Jets game in early '07? No.

Coverup.

So how big does ESPN play this up? How do they report that the Commissioner of the biggest sports league in the US helped conceal the cheating by a club owned by his biggest benafactor, by an owner that by all accounts was his biggest booster when the league selected him as Commissioner?

ESPN carries the water for its business partner by playing the story down, pretty much accepting Goodell's ridiculous claim that this had all been dislosed before, and shoving Roger Clemens' steroid-swelled head down our throats.

Sports journalism is dead. Cosell is spinning in his grave.

Excellent points. Never once did Goodell say that the Pats were taping signals in anything but the Jets game. In fact, when asked whether this was being done beyond that Jets game, like in Super Bowls, league officials repeatedly said that there was no evidence of that.

As for ESPN, did you notice all the coverage of Boston's victory parade plans? And the 19-0 book by the Boston Globe? And the team trying to trademark 19-0?

No? That's what I thought. But you know if New York had been planning a parade, or if some New York newpaper was writing a book about the Giants' upset win, ESPN would be all over that saying "How dare they be so presumptuous?!" Funny how when other teams do stuff that the Pats percieve as disrespect, it's all over the news, but when the Pats do the very same things, nobody mentions it.

[HairOnFire]

Bump.

Yeah, I've been thinking about bumping this thread myself, but I've been waiting to see if Spector can force the ex-Patriot employee who was involved into saying more than he already has.

As we all pretty much suspected, the Pats were cheating in their Super Bowl years. A US Senator forced Goodell to talk to him, then the Senator came out and announced that Goodell said Bellicheat admitted that he'd been doing the taping since he'd been with the Pats.

Most of the rumors that I read months ago claimed Bellicheat began taping defensive signals from the moment he was hired as Cleveland's head coach.

Goodell then announced sure he said that, but this is nothing new. This adds nothing to the story, we've been through this before. WHAT? Can anyone point to one instance in the past where Goodell said the Pats cheated in anything but that Jets game in early '07? No.

Actually, yes. When the punishment was announced Goodell admitted that they were the result of a history of cheating...though the number of games or years were never elaborated upon. However, it was my belief that the cheating had occured routinely and constantly over a period of years that was at the very core of my opinion that the penalties were woefully inadequate. Bellicheat should have been suspended for at least 4 games, additional draft picks should have been taken away, and yeah....it's not unreasonable to suggest the results of the Jet game should have been reversed.

So how big does ESPN play this up? How do they report that the Commissioner of the biggest sports league in the US helped conceal the cheating by a club owned by his biggest benafactor, by an owner that by all accounts was his biggest booster when the league selected him as Commissioner?

To be fair, ESPN is a pretty big tent and just this morning on "First Take" I listened to a debate that featured all parties blasting the hypocrisy Goodell has demonstrated by crushing individual players for minor transgressions that have no impact on the game...while delivering a weak slap to the wrist to front office types who are caught systematically cheating. Frankly, I thought it was a beautiful thing....mostly because the talking heads were finally saying many of the things I had said months ago.

Bottom Line: The story shows no signs of dying, Goodell's pristine image has already taken a major hit, and things will only snowball if Spector flips the ex-employee involved in the taping.