Mr. Goodell Goes to Washington (4 Hours to Kickoff)

I probably should have brought this story to your attention earlier, but I kind of discounted it. Thinking about it though, this is actually a very important story. For those of you who don't know, the NFL has had, from almost the very beginning (starting when their games were first nationally televised and the AFL - NFL Merger) a very special exemption from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The reason for this is that the NFL forms a very powerful monopoly. Despite the possibility of another league existing, such as the short lived World Football League, the structure of their television contracts makes the creation and continued success of a second football league very difficult. For this reason, the NFL has more and needs more oversight from Congress than other organizations because their continued existence depends on Congress deciding that their monopoly remains in the best interest of the American people. 

The crux of this story revolves around Spygate and, after Roger Goodell decided on the disciplinary measures to be taken (750,000$ in fines, loss of a 1rst round draft pick), how he destroyed the tapes. Senator Arlen Specter questions this because he believes, and rightly so, that those tapes and evidence of any wrongdoing should be publicly available. His timing about this is a little questionable, just a week before the Super Bowl, and of course calculated to provide maximum exposure, however the information about all the lost letters going back in forth is a little weird too. What strikes me as the worst of all is Goodell's explanation about why he destroyed the tapes, saying that it ensured that if any more footage surfaced, then that was proof that the Patriots didn't submit all of the evidence like they promised. It seems to me that comparing any new footage and indexing what footage was submitted would also serve that purpose, but I'm just some schmoe with nothing to hide. 

I approve of a lot of what Mr. Goodell has done during his tenure, mainly shown by the 20% reduction in off-field incidents that NFL players have been involved in during the past year, however evidence that would show activities that corrupt the entire legitimacy of a national monopoly is something that needs to be preserved and accessible, no matter how shameful.