With the Super Bowl fast approaching, a senior Republican senator says he wants the NFL to explain why it destroyed evidence of the New England Patriots cheating scandal.
"I am very concerned about the underlying facts on the taping, the reasons for the judgment on the limited penalties and, most of all, on the inexplicable destruction of the tapes," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., in a Thursday letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the matter could put the league's antitrust exemption at risk.
"Their antitrust exemption has been on my mind for a long time," he said in a Capitol Hill news conference.
The matter may not compare to the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes, Specter said, but he added, "I do believe that it is a matter of importance. It's not going to displace the stimulus package or the Iraq war, but I think the integrity of football is very important, and I think the National Football League has a special duty to the American people — and further the Congress — because they have an antitrust exemption."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/01/national/w075533S49.DTL
