[rawhide]

And what amazes me is how the NFL quickly and quietly swept this under the rug. Destroying all the videos supposedly received from the Patriots almost immediately after receiving them. And taking the Patriots at their cheating word that they sent in all the film? And what about the audiotapes?

Why was Commissioner Goodell so quick on the draw? Perhaps he saw an enormous scandal getting ready to blow open?

[Vicki]

And what amazes me is how the NFL quickly and quietly swept this under the rug.

I didn't even hear about this until I attended my husband's company Christmas party where I heard about it standing in the buffet line. I knew there was a reason I didn't want the Patriots to win that last game. How can a team hold their head high knowing they are cheaters?

[Leisler]

Perhaps he found a common practice of many teams and it wasn’t so much the Patriots as protecting the value of the entire league, much like Baseball, for years kept saying steroids was a rare individual, or at worst, a team problem.

[discostu]

Because the first tape had already leaked to the press. Anything shown on TV is fair game for usage by teams, if any of that footage had leaked (a probability that had already been demonstrated) then all the teams, including the Pats, could have used it. The audio was part of the video, just like your home VHS/ digital stuff.

Really anybody that thinks the tape destruction was done to hide evidence needs to explain why they busted the Pats in the first place. If Goodell wanted to prevent a scandal the much more efficient way is to tell the Jets to suck it up and never bust the Pats. Even more efficient would have been to make sure the competition committee have helmet radios to the defense this off season and end the thing that causes taping in the first place.