That being said sometimes I have do vent on absurd events involving some of the charming vermin of politics. Arlen Specter has recently outdone himself as far as making a mockery of himself and his position. He has a gripe with the NFL and the handling of the New England Patriots. And this has him obsessed. People losing there homes? Not a word. Gas prices shoved up our rear ends? He doesn't worry about that. The NFL? Oh boy does that get his attention.
Of all of the things I have heard or read about Senator Specter, being an avid sports fan is absolutely one of his few redeeming qualities. But his latest soap box screaming is so ridiculous it is almost unbelievable.
At the beginning of the 2007-2008 NFL season the New England Patriots were punished for breaking the rules of taping opposing teams coaches. The story was that against the New York Jets they were trying to steal defensive coaches signals to give them an edge as the game progressed.
It is important to point out that you are allowed to watch opposing teams or get information from others about team signals and plays. That is if someone is dumb enough to reveal that sort of information. But in the case of trades for example, free agent signings, or coaches changing organizations trends and tendencies are passed along. But the NFL rules do not allow video of opposing teams signals. You can video games or open practices of course. But you can not film the coaches sending signals.
As the season progressed a cloud of controversary stilled lingered over the Patriots. Especially when the Boston Herald later claimed to have information that Bill Belechik, the head coach and his Patriots had practiced this video taping in the past. They even claimed that the Patriots taped the St. Louis Rams in a pre Super Bowl XXXIV practice. All of this implied the Patriots have been cheating to be as successful as they have been in this decade.
For the sake of time we will not argue if this actually helps a team win or not. The story gets real wacky however when Arlen Specter crawled out from under his rock and wanted to get involved in solving this great mystery. Of course part of his motive is as a long time Philadelphia resident, he wants to believe that perhaps that is why the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX. Oh and of course the integrity of professional sports he says.
The sad part of all of this is what does this guy know about how to handle an internal NFL problem? Where is this guy when companies like Enron ruin the lives of its employees by corruption and deception? Or the Savings and Loan scandal? Both crippled the economy and congress didn't blink an eye outside of a couple cursory comments. The Savings and Loan investigations were a sham. Keating went to jail how long? And what kind of prison?
Yes the NFL is among the largest industries in the world and they should be held to legal standards. Of course people like Specter claim this NFL scandal is defrauding the public. But professional sports has always handled cheating scandals on their own. Even the recent hearings over Major League Baseball and steroids didn't accomplish anything. The MLB had to address the problem on its own.
Ultimately the consumer can pass on the product if they feel ripped off. Or if the industry is blatanly fraudelent then the government could actually do something like revoke the anti trust exemption. But this will never happen. EVER!
Which brings me to my first upper cut at Specter. Why grandstand? He isn't going to do or change anything. He has zero leverage against a real corporate monster like the NFL. They are a juggernaut! For those of you who don't follow sports let me spell it out for you. You have the NFL, a multi BILLION dollar industry. That spawns and feeds the enormous sponsors which are made up of numerous multi MILLION and mulit BILLION dollar industries. It also has created a multi BILLION dollar sports media business. Which includes the multi BILLION dollar mammoth television deals with the biggest television networks on the planet. (ESPN only exists because of professional sports like the NFL!) Not to mention the multi BILLION dollar sports memorabilia industry. Then to top it all off people are not aware of the multi BILLION dollar gambling industry that is extremely strong with the NFL games. So when you add all this together you have to ask is the NFL really worried about some old punk Senator and his big mouth? The congress will never, ever, ever take action against the all powerful monster corporate world that feeds their campaign funding.
Then to add insult to injury isn't it ironic that Arlen Specter is interested in conspiracies? This is the same Senator Specter that was on the Warren Commission that investigated the JFK assination. This is the man who suggested the one bullet theory. This is a guy who was involved in the biggest cover up in United States history.
He also was around when the Ted Kennedy incident occured. In fact I can tell you from living most of my life in the Philadelphia area people have wondered for years how this guy gets re-elected. He is usually way behind in the polls, every one claims to not vote for him and he still squeaks by. Now there is a mystery to solve.
