Projo Sports Blog

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., called today for a "transparent and independent" investigation into allegations that the New England Patriots tried to spy on opposing teams, asserting that the practice went on more frequently than has previously been known.

Specter, who met with former Patriots' videographer Matt Walsh yesterday, also criticized what he called the National Football League's investigation into the matter.

Earlier in the day yesterday, Walsh met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who announced after yesterday's meeting that further sanctions against the Patriots over the Spygate controversy were unlikely.

Goodell said Walsh affirmed that he does not have, nor did he make, a tape of the St. Louis Rams’ final walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI, in 2002.

Speaking to reporters in Washington today, Specter charged among other things that, although Walsh did not tape the St. Louis Rams walkthrough practice, Walsh and several other Patriots' personnel "were present to observe most if not all" of the practice, including running back "Marshall Faulk's unusual positioning as a punt returner."

Specter, citing reports by the late journalist David Halberstam, said Patriots' coach Bill Belichick spent much time before that Super Bowl "obsessing about where the Rams would line up Faulk."

Specter, based on an interview with Walsh and other research, also asserted that although Walsh did not tape opposition practices between 2003 and 2005 -- a gap much remarked upon in the sports media -- other Patriots' personnel did tape such sessions during those years.

Specter also criticized the NFL for permitting the Patriots to have representatives on hand during yesterday's NFL questioning of Walsh. Former prosecutor Specter asserted that such a practice ran counter to the principles of objective investigations.

-- Specter criticized NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in stinging terms for what he called the league's "dribbling out" of facts about the so-called Spygate scandal and for destroying the first significant evidence in the case, tapes that the Patriots surrendered last September after the disclosure that they had videotaped New York Jets defensive signals during a game.

Specter also charged that Goodell settled on a penalty against the Patriots before he viewed the videotaped evidence of the rules infraction.

Specter did not specify who should do the investigation, but he did hold out as an example the investigation of steroids use in baseball by former Senator George Mitchell.

-- Journal Washington bureau John Mulligan

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