Goodell Will Meet With Sen. Specter

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) are to meet today to discuss the "Spygate" case involving the New England Patriots.

Patriots Coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team was fined $250,000. The Patriots also forfeited a first-round draft pick. Specter has asked Goodell to explain his decision to destroy the tapes and notes from the case, which go back to 2002.

Specter questioned the quality of the NFL investigation that followed the illegal taping of the New York Jets' defensive signals in the opening game of this season as well as the commissioner's decision to destroy video evidence. He has raised the possibility of congressional hearings if he wasn't satisfied with Goodell's answers.

In defending the destruction of the notes, Goodell said "there was no purpose to them at all." Specter said Goodell's response "didn't make any sense at all" and also questioned whether there might have been illegal acts by the Patriots before the 2005 Super Bowl, when they beat the Philadelphia Eagles.

The punishment went beyond the Jets tapes. The tapes and notes dated as far back as 2002, and the NFL said in October that Belichick acknowledged to Goodell that there had been spying since he became New England's coach in 2000.

Matt Walsh, a former video assistant for the Patriots, said last week during the Pro Bowl in Hawaii that he couldn't talk about allegations that he taped a walk-through practice by the St. Louis Rams before the 2002 Super Bowl. New England, a two-touchdown underdog, won that game, 20-17.

-- From News Services