With more allegations of cheating coming to light, it does make you wonder.

I personally have no opinion, but I can see why the questions and the taint will linger:

New Claim of Taping Emerges Against Patriots

The Patriots’ pattern of illicitly videotaping the signals of opposing N.F.L. coaches began in Coach Bill Belichick’s first preseason with the team in 2000, a former Patriots player said. The information was put to use in that year’s regular-season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Belichick’s debut as New England’s coach.

The secret taping of signals, which is against league rules, continued at least through three championship seasons to the 2007 season opener against the Jets, when the Patriots were caught and subsequently sanctioned by the league.

…

According to several executives in the league, the season opener against the Jets was not the first time the Patriots had been spotted taping another team’s defensive coaches at Giants Stadium. In the final preseason game of 2006, the Patriots were caught taping a Giants defensive assistant giving signals, the executives said.

The incident prompted a letter addressed to all teams seven days later from the N.F.L. vice president Ray Anderson that detailed the league’s interpretation of the rules. That letter was cited by Commissioner Roger Goodell when he punished the Patriots.

Now, this part cracks me up.  His excuse?

Belichick has said that he misinterpreted the league’s bylaws, telling Goodell that he thought it was permissible to use electronic equipment as long as the information was not used in the same game. That explanation has been greeted with disbelief by some peers and league officials.

Yea, like anyone is buying that.

In a news conference last week, Goodell said Belichick’s explanation led to the assumption that he had been videotaping opponents’ signals “as long as he has been head coach.”

…

The Patriots appear to have continued the practice of taping opposing signals for seven years. Last September, Goodell fined Belichick $500,000, fined the Patriots $250,000 and took away one of team’s first-round draft choices in 2008. After the sanctions were announced, the Patriots submitted six tapes, from games in 2006 and 2007, and some notes that dated to 2002, Goodell said. The tapes and notes were destroyed days after being handed to the league, because Goodell considered the matter closed.

But questions remain about how wide and deep the Patriots’ taping habits extended. Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who met with Goodell last week, is among those still questioning why the league was so quick to sanction the Patriots and destroy the evidence.

 OK, I really only have two observations.

First, how stupid do they think people are?  I mean the league, no the Pats.  There is no doubt in my mind that all teams do everything they can to intercept and decipher the other teams signals.  To be able to predict what they will do is too great of an advantage.  So acting like this is an isolated thing is almost insulting.  The Pats aren’t the isolated naughty bunch, they just got caught.  The league destroyed the evidence and closed the investigation so quickly because the league wants this to go away to preserve the image of their very lucrative franchise.

My other observation is that when congress is spending time investigating football, we really have lost sight of our legislative priorities.  Hello!  War?  Social Security?  Taxes?  The economy?  Anyone?  Bueller?

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