why does congress want to look into"spygate"?

Additionally, if the league is indeed hiding more information regarding "Spygate" then it is perpetrating fraud on the public. Because the government gives the NFL an antitrust exemption, it is their duty to enforce anti-fraud provisions. Otherwise, what we end up with is subsidized professional wrestling.

As an aside, one of the funny things about this site is that someone can post a great response such as the one quoted above that essentially answers the question in a logical manner, and a couple of responses latter we'll get the "because Congress is dumb" or "Congress has nothing better to do" arguments. While both statements may have a basis in reality, amorentz has pretty much hit the nail on the head here.
Good points, and sorry for piling on. I was writing my post when yours went up.

Good points, and sorry for piling on. I was writing my post when yours went up.

No worries. I think you have a very valid and cogent argument. What I think is funny is that in the face of the law and the facts of this matter, people think Congress has no duty to get involved. Well in that case, let the NFL give up their limited exemption and then Congress won't have a say. Until then, Congress is going to stick their nose in whenever there is a possible violation of their limited antitrust exemption (in the case of steroids or cheating).

No worries. I think you have a very valid and cogent argument. What I think is funny is that in the face of the law and the facts of this matter, people think Congress has no duty to get involved. Well in that case, let the NFL give up their limited exemption and then Congress won't have a say. Until then, Congress is going to stick their nose in whenever there is a possible violation of their limited antitrust exemption (in the case of steroids or cheating).

I would agree with anti trust/cheating but this whole baseball/steroids issue.....investigating whether players used steroids back in the 80's and 90's is rediculous. If they are so concerned then appoint a DEA agent to investigate and inform all parties that if they need to co opperate with the investigation. If someone used drugs against the law then charge them. If the Doctor was giving it out drugs like candy charge him. Why do we have polititions asking the questions. Assign an investigator and allow him or her to do their job and report back to them with a final report.

I would agree with anti trust/cheating but this whole baseball/steroids issue.....investigating whether players used steroids back in the 80's and 90's is rediculous. If they are so concerned then appoint a DEA agent to investigate and inform all parties that if they need to co opperate with the investigation. If someone used drugs against the law then charge them. If the Doctor was giving it out drugs like candy charge him. Why do we have polititions asking the questions. Assign an investigator and allow him or her to do their job and report back to them with a final report.

Good point. I think that is what they were hoping the Mitchell Report would do (albeit MLB funded). However, remember that there are criminal investigations going on (remember Bonds). I think the investigations into the '80's and '90's has a lot to do with pressuring MLB and MLBPA to go way beyond what they wanted to do in terms of drug testing.

Sen. Arlen Specter is doing the right thing, and I will be very encouraged if he holds hearings on the issue. The NFL, it seems, has been covering up the misdeeds of the Patriots by refusing to investigate them seriously, and possibly also by the destruction of the evidence in the case.

Good for Sen. Specter in pursuing this matter.

I'm not against the investigations...I'm against who we have doing them. Why are polititions who are voted in waisting not only their time(which they could be doing something else for their state or our country) but our tax dollars that is paying for their time they are waisting?

Also why do we have several polititions investigating? Assaign one politition and let him meet with everyone. I guess they thing if sports is going to buy off a politition to make the investigation look favorably then let them buy off a whole slew of polititions. lol.

I would only suggest that the group of polititions decide on one investigator and then when complete have them report to the group at the end. Then the polititions can look into anti trust/cheating, but allow the investigator to do his job and any breaking of law allow charges to be filed by them.

if congress doesnt investigate than who? You all have valid points about what is going on with our tax money. America needs healthcare, roadwork and education improvements. The last thing congress needs to be doing is investigating a recreational sport.... Maybe this will be the initiative needed to create some sort of investigation commitee. If there already is one, it should be better. IMO the only reason congress feels the need to intervene is because Spector feels that the investigation that is taking place now is not enough. I applaud him for doing so and hope that Goddell is paying attention. Maybe a more efficient way of dealing with rule breakers will come out of all of this, and our tax dollars will not be used in the future.

Sen. Arlen Specter is doing the right thing, and I will be very encouraged if he holds hearings on the issue. The NFL, it seems, has been covering up the misdeeds of the Patriots by refusing to investigate them seriously, and possibly also by the destruction of the evidence in the case.

Good for Sen. Specter in pursuing this matter.I agree. If the misdeeds were great enough to impose the stiffest penalty in NFL history, then WHY would the NFL destroy the evidence? It smells of a cover up of even greater impropriety, and the NFL and Goodell have lost credibility by destroying the key evidence that they ruled on.

Goodell claims that the Patriots only turned over evidence from the 2005 and 2006 seasons, neither of which were Super Bowl seasons for NE. If Matt Walsh's allegations that the Pats taped the Rams final walkthrough before their first Super Bowl victory, or any other evidence from Super Bowl winning seasons turns up, I want to see much harsher penalties. Perhaps a 1-2 year suspension for Belichick, or stripping of the title won during a season where videotape cheating occurred. Goodell left open his right to revisit this case if NE did not hand over all evidence, and if he's really a man of his word, he will be as harsh with this as he has been with individual players.

I think it's necesarry because obviously the league did not do due diligence with its own investigation. Everyone likes Robert Kraft so they did a quick and dirty, burned all the tapes and hoped everyone would forget about it. They especially were hoping everyone would forget about it after the Pats started drawing big t.v. numbers on their undefeated run. The fact that they never talked to this Walsh guy is alone reason enough for someone to look into it. If some other industry were committing consumer fraud, no one would think twice about a government investigation. And to me, that's all the Patriots are -a fraud.

I see a lot of people claiming that the NFL has anti-trust protection but I didn't think that is true. My understanding is the MLB does but not the NFL. I thought when Al Davis sued the NFL proved this. That was the reason NFL teams move much more often than MLB teams. (they don't need league permission)