Tom E. Curran • E-mail

Forty-four years ago, Arlen Specter worked an investigation that had slightly more national relevance than figuring out how long the New England Patriots have been recording fat guys in sweatpants gesticulating with their hands.

Specter, a Philadelphia district attorney at the time, was a key member of the Warren Commission, the committee charged with investigating the assassination of President Kennedy.

He’s the one who came up with the ambitious "single bullet theory" that claims one of the three shots fired at JFK basically traveled a path akin to something little Billy from Family Circus would have -- in through Kennedy’s right shoulder, bangs a hard left, exits at the throat, through the seat, into the right armpit of Governor John Connally, out the other side, into Connally’s wrist where it bangs another slight left and lands in Connally’s left thigh.

In 2001, a Gallup poll found that 81 percent of Americans don’t believe the findings of the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone or that one bullet did all that damage.

Click here for a good read on Specter’s role on the Warren Commission from back in 1966.
We’ll leave the JFK conspiracy theories to Oliver Stone and The History Channel. But we will point out the irony of Specter insinuating that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is guilty of a coverup for destroying the Patriots' tapes of rival teams' defensive coordinators.

And we’ll also note that, with a nation at war overseas and listing toward recession at home, it’s awesome that the 78-year-old Republican Senator from Pennsylvania is bringing his considerable reputation and influence to bear on...(insert Law and Order tones)...Spygate.

This week, eyebrows rose when it was noted that the Patriots' videotaping of coordinators has gone on since 2000. Yet in Goodell’s ruling in September, he stated it was an ongoing practice the Patriots had been involved in.

As Goodell said Wednesday, "I'm not sure there isn't a coach in the league who doesn't expect their signals are being intercepted in some way by other teams. I think it was coach (Bill) Parcells who said any coach who doesn't expect his signals to be stolen is stupid."

The breathless pursuit of the Patriots that Specter’s engaged in ignores the reality that teams are forever attempting to "steal intelligence" from each other. And if the Patriots were the only club guilty of coordinator filming, why then would the memo sent by league honcho Ray Anderson last year have been sent to all 32 teams?

It’s rampant. And almost inconsequential to the outcome of games if the statement released by the Steelers -- three-time targets of Patriots taping -- said on Thursday.

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"We consider the tapes of our coaching staff during our games against the New England Patriots to be a non-issue. In our opinion, they had no impact on the results of those games. The Steelers fully support the manner in which Commissioner Goodell handled the situation and the discipline that he levied against those who violated league rules. We are confident that the Commissioner has taken appropriate action in his investigation of this matter, and will do so again if new information arises which requires further investigation and or discipline."

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The upshot of Specter’s efforts at shining a light on the Patriots specifically will, at some point, result in that light being shone into places where video guys, coaches, scouts and general managers of the other 31 teams lurk wondering how far this is going to go.

Specter’s spoiling for a congressional hearing it seems. If that’s the endgame, and if present and former coaches and team personnel are going to be paraded up to Capitol Hill to tell what they know, cancel your vacations, Congress. This is going to be a while.

And instead of sipping a Tom Collins on some lawn in the Hamptons, they’ll be watching fat guys in sweatpants gesticulating with their hands.

Mini Mailbag
Tom,
I can’t let the Super Bowl go. On the "play" it is obvious (Richard) Seymour is being held around the neck. Also, after Eli escapes it appears (Adalius) Thomas is being held from behind by his shirt. Also what happened to hand to the head of the quarterback. Even Giants fans told me they could not believe what they got away with.  If Seymour had Eli from below and Harrison was pulling Manning around the neck would there have been a flag? If they had hit Manning in the head like that there would have been flags. I know they lost but one has to wonder.
Thanks, John.

John,

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Keep watching the play. One of these times, the ball’s going to pop like a zit out of Tyree’s arms and hit the ground, promise. As for the hands to the head, I’m guessing you refer to the Kawika Mitchell hit on Brady in the end zone? Yeah, missed call along with the offensive pass interference on Amani Toomer early in the game. But what goes around comes around and you may recall Mike Vrabel conked Kurt Warner in the head back in SB 36 forcing the pick-six he threw to Ty Law. And SI had a great cover shot of Willie McGinest going helmet-to-helmet with Warner from that day as well. While we’re on the subject of "the play," as amazing and improbable as it was, David Tyree’s 32-yard catch only moved the ball to the Patriots 24 with 59 seconds left. The bigger play in the drive was the third-and-11 completion to Steve Smith for 12 yards with 39 seconds left. That was the backbreaker for New England.

Tom,
I sat with my son watching a Super Bowl for the ages and all I could think about afterwards was that Bill Belichick should be fined heavily for his behavior at the end of the game. How dare he walk off the field before the end of the game and cause his players to have to stand in his stead while he walks away before the game is over. What message is he sending his team, the opposing team and athletes around the world watching the game? Any athlete will tell you that the humiliation one goes through at the end of a game after losing is miserable, but it makes winning all the better. For him to provide a justification for a 10-year-old soccer player in Florida or New York or Texas next year to walk off seconds before a match he is losing, or a high school softball player in Tulsa, or Oakland or Maine to leave the field before the final out, or any other example of poor sportsmanship is so inexcusable it tarnishes an otherwise great game from a viewer’s perspective. He did it because he is egomaniacal and needed to show he was in control even though he had lost control, a sickness others should not condone.
Jeffrey. R. Cohen
Arlington, VA

Jeffrey,
Thanks for the well-crafted email. I’ll stop short of agreeing with you that it’s a sickness. I’ll even allow Belichick’s explanation that if he hadn’t gone to congratulate Tom Coughlin then he probably wouldn’t have gotten there after the final play. But you’re right, he should have returned to the Patriots sideline. It was tremendously bad form.

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