[MERGED] Senator wants to meet with Commish about Destroyed Tapes

[Mike13]

Sorry to disappoint you. It definately hurt to lose the SB but how down can a patriots fan get with an 18-1 season

Putting on a brave face huh?

[adamprez2003]

Originally Posted by MR NFLFAN

Sorry to disappoint you. It definately hurt to lose the SB but how down can a patriots fan get with an 18-1 season?

face down?

[adamprez2003]

Originally Posted by TomBradyWoot

Except lost in all of this, is that he's only doing it because of the Eagles.

You guys can complain all you want about the NFL destroying the tapes, the reason they were destroyed is because it showed other teams "cheating" as well. The fact you choose not to accept that is fine.

Yeah but they didnt win SuperBowls. Wouldnt it be funny if you're not only the first franchise to go 18-1 and LOSE a SuperBowl but a couple of your SuperBowl titles are stripped as well due to your cheating ways

[adamprez2003]

Originally Posted by NJFINSFAN1

Because the NFL has nothing to do with what he should be worring about. He is doing this to find votes. Which he most likely wouldn't need if he was doing his job right.

This is not steriods, its a team that got caught and the NFL took care of it, I agree destroying the tapes was bad judgement, but it has nothing to do with the government.

Better he harass the Patriots then figure out new ways to steal my money. I am all for him being aas distracted as possible from the things you want him to concentrate on

[adamprez2003]

Originally Posted by MR NFLFAN

There is no justification in all this. I don't think the league really wants to open its closets to the public, lord knows what else could hiding in there.
Look what happened to the Catholic church when they opened their closets.
.

The Catholic Church? What, did they burn tapes of Brady with little boys or something

[adamprez2003]

Originally Posted by Zeke0123

No Mr NFLFAN you would be wrong the Smug/Hubris bar was set at a level no other franchise or fanbase could reach by the Patriots this year...Maybe you arent included in that group I dont know but even your Boston sports media took the cake.

The 72 Squad does a little crowing every year they EARNED it..A big piece of the Patriot nation did it before they sealed the deal and it was annoying to say the least.

I would like to thank the Pats for cementing the Perfect Season even deeper into the annals of football lore tho.. so for that they have my appreciation.

Yeah and the 72 Dolphins also send their thanks. They really appreciate the money they earned off of the greatest choke job ever. That Reebok Perfectville money is really appreciated and I'm sure it was used to buy some really tasty champagne

[MR NFLFAN]

Originally Posted by adamprez2003

Yeah and the 72 Dolphins also send their thanks. They really appreciate the money they earned off of the greatest choke job ever. That Reebok Perfectville money is really appreciated and I'm sure it was used to buy some really tasty champagne

Gezz I hope they don't let Morris near that champagne.

[adamprez2003]

Originally Posted by MR NFLFAN

Gezz I hope they don't let Morris near that champagne.

That was a good comeback. Touche' Mr Nfl

[unluckyluciano]

Originally Posted by MR NFLFAN

Seeing as everyone likes to beat their chest in search of the truth I felt a little background on the great Senator Specter was in order. Specter has too many conflicts of interest to run an investigation especially with regards to the NFL.

This is like leaving the fox in charge of the hen house.

No this is like an attempt to smear the investigation and to make it seem less legit. Politics as usual I suppose though.

[MR NFLFAN]

Originally Posted by unluckyluciano

No this is like an attempt to smear the investigation and to make it seem less legit. Politics as usual I suppose though.

If you want it legit then get someone else besides Arlen Specter to investigate.

[Zeke0123]

Originally Posted by MR NFLFAN

If you want it legit then get someone else besides Arlen Specter to investigate.

Agreed Specter is a tool with alterior motives..doesnt mean there is nothing to this thing tho.

[MR NFLFAN]

Originally Posted by Zeke0123

Agreed Specter is a tool with alterior motives..doesnt mean there is nothing to this thing tho.

I didn't say there was nothing to it, because we don't know that. Thats what the investigation is for. I just don't think Specter is the right guy to be running this.

[late again]

Originally Posted by MR NFLFAN

I didn't say there was nothing to it, because we don't know that. Thats what the investigation is for. I just don't think Specter is the right guy to be running this.

Maybe; maybe not. Read the following commentary.

he Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. § 1831–1839) makes the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. This law contains two provisions criminalizing two sorts of activity. The first, 18 U.S.C. § 1831(a), criminalizes the theft of trade secrets to benefit foreign powers; the second, 18 U.S.C. § 1832, criminalizes their theft for commercial or economic purposes. (The statutory penalties are different for the two offenses.)
The Economic Espionage Act, 1996 has extraterritorial jurisdiction where:

• The offender is a U.S. citizen;
• The victim is a U.S. citizen;
• The offence was intended to have, or had, a direct substantial effect in the U.S.

This legislation has created much debate within the business intelligence community regarding the legality and ethics of various forms of information gathering designed to provide business decision-makers with competitive advantages in areas such as strategy, marketing, research and development, or negotiations. Most business intelligence (also known as competitive intelligence practitioners) rely largely on the collection and analysis of open source information from which they identify events, patterns, and trends of actionable interest. However, some techniques focus on the collection of publicly available information that is in limited circulation. This may be obtained through a number of direct and indirect techniques that share common origins in the national intelligence community. The use of these techniques is often debated from legal and ethical standpoints based on this Act.
One such example is the collection and analysis of gray literature. The techniques for developing actionable intelligence from limited circulation / limited availability documents such as selected corporate publications can raise difficult legal and ethical questions under both intellectual property laws and the Economic Espionage Act.
The Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals provides training and publications which outline a series of guidelines designed to support business intelligence professionals seeking to comply with both the legal restrictions of the EEA as well as the ethical considerations involved.
The EEA is a uniquely American law, developed on the basis of a national philosophy that emphasizes a "level playing field" for all business competitors that arose in no small part due to the size and diversity of the American private sector. Many other nations not only lack such legislation, but actively support industrial espionage using both their national intelligence services as well as less formal mechanisms including bribery and corruption. The United States Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive publishes an annual report on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage mandated by the U.S. Congress which outlines these espionage activities of many foreign nations.
The United States does not publish records of its own indulgence in state-sanctioned industrial espionage. In 2000, the European Parliament which voted to carry out an investigation into the international surveillance project ECHELON. That same year the French government also began an official investigation into allegations that several collaborating nations may be using the program for illegal purposes. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency documents had been revealed to the British press, showing that the U.S. has been using the technology to monitor European business communications. The French and European allegations centred on the suspicion that such information was being passed to U.S. firms.
In 2000, in response to European concerns, a former U.S. Director of Central Intelligence, James Woolsy, said (in the March 17, 2000 Wall Street Journal editorial) that if there is collection, it's usually focused on bribery by European companies, not on access to technologies. Woolsey said "most European technology just isn’t worth our stealing." However, Woolsey's intervention may have raised more concern than it quieted.

[shula_guy]

This conversation is a little old but Im going to throw in my two cents anyhow.

The Patriots are guilty of breaking the rules. That is agreed upon. It makes no difference if all 32 teams are cheating, or just one. Only the Patriots got caught. Mangini blew the whistle on him and he did it publically. The leauge investigated it and penalized the team.

The leauges investigation and punishment was a controversial decission. Enough so, that a US senator saw an opprotunity to score some political points out of it. Spectors motivation is suspect but calling for hearings is not unjustified.

I have trouble with the term cheating here. They violated rules. How severe was the violation? I dont know and apparently noone will because the leauge deystroyed the evidence before it could be viewed, and evaluated by an independent non bias party. That is a big problem. It leads people to assume the worst.

If the information gathered was really inconsquental, then the Pats should be calling for Godells head on a stick. There is no excuse for deystroying evidence that involves the integrity of a multi billion dollar corporation. What if this was enron and you were told the evidence was viewed internally and then deystroyed. It would not sit well with alot of people.

This thing is a big mess. Patriot fans in general come off with a "circle the wagons" type persona over this. They should be the loudest voices of protest in this. They should want a full, fair, complete investigation with the results released publicly to exaunerate thier reputation. If they are only guily of something petty, this will put it to rest once and for all. If it is something more, then they stand with chacter and denounce thier hometown franchise, because it isnt a reputation that thier community wants to be repesented as.

Patriots community in general is not doing that. They are coming off as resentfull and defensive. People are thinking the worst of them because of it.

I think some of the critizims about the teams smugness and arrogance is justifable and accurate, but some of it is overblown too. There has been a lot of insulting manuvers by both sides, and its had a snowball effect all season. Both sides seem to be caught up in trying to out do the other side.

All in all I have to say this is one of the ugliest football seasons I can remember going all the way back to the players strike.

[late again]

Originally Posted by MR NFLFAN

Sorry to disappoint you. It definately hurt to lose the SB but how down can a patriots fan get with an 18-1 season?

Sorry but those remarks are a complete about-face from what Pats fans were saying up until losing the SB. Before then it was a bunch of "it's all about the ring"; it's all about championships"; all that matters is winning Super Bowls"; "anything less than another Lombardi is failure"; "the 07 Patriots are going to erase the 72 Dolphins from the history books" etc, etc, ad nauseam.
After all that, it's good to know that some of you guys are able to regain some perspective and appreciate things for what they are.