Specter 'determined' to continue NFL probe
by FOXSports.com
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Learning that Patriots coach Bill Belichick probably videotaped opposing sidelines since at least 2002 has attracted Specter's attention. Specter also said the NFL had been investigating Matt Walsh, a former Patriots video assistant who may have information on the controversy.
"There are many matters which have not been explained," Specter said. "And the commissioner is stonewalling."
Specter said he did not have the "factual basis" for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "But I don't want people to think that we're backing off," he said.
Specter said three "red flags" concerned him: Goodell's destruction of the tapes and notes received from the Patriots last fall; Goodell's decision to impose penalties before the league reviewed that material; and the way the NFL has approached Walsh.
Specter wants to speak to Walsh, now working in Hawaii, but that Walsh's lawyer told him that the NFL had scared off Walsh.
"He will talk if the league will encourage him by agreeing not to sue him," Specter said.
Goodell has said the league had made an offer to Walsh to tell what he knows. That could include information about reports denied by the Patriots that New England taped a St. Louis Rams walk-through the day before the Super Bowl in January 2002.
"We have made a proposal in which he can come forward and present information which is simply based on two factors: He has to tell the truth, and he has to return anything he took improperly," Goodell said.
Specter said that the NFL is using a former FBI agent to investigate Walsh, but league spokesman Greg Aiello categorized the probe as a routine background check.
On Wednesday, Goodell said Belichick probably had been videotaping opponents' signals his entire career as a head coach, perhaps dating to his time with the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s.
"He thought that it was permissible to use electronic equipment as long as the information wasn't used in the same game," Goodell said. "That's not my reading of the rules, and that is why I disciplined him so aggressively."
Specter has come under criticism for his interest in the videotape affair. Some see his inquiries as being overly protective of Pennsylvania's teams. The Patriots beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship Game after the 2004 season, then defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.
"I'm unwilling to draw conclusions, because I don't want to be accused of overreacting," Specter said Thursday.
The Steelers released a statement Thursday to address such speculation.
"We consider the tapes of our coaching staff during our games against the New England Patriots to be a nonissue," the statement said. "In our opinion, they had no impact on the results of those games."
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