Four Reasons Why Arlen Specter Should Just Let Spygate Die

Yesterday, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell met with former New England Patriots assistant Matt Walsh and, in finding no new evidence of cheating, basically put an end to Spygate. And, after the Boston Herald printed a retraction of a previous accusation the team video taped a St. Louis Rams' walkthrough prior to the Super Bowl; I thought this would finally be over with.

That's before Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania decided to stick his nose into things and ask for an independent investigation. To this, I have to say, just let it die already.

I'm sure Specter has his reasons for wanting the investigation. But, I can give him five good reasons why he should just let things be:

1. The team and the coach have been punished. Specter's accusation is the league is overlooking the offenses. But, $750,000 in fines and a first round draft pick isn't ignoring the issue. I'll agree this might seem like a light punishment to some. However, the Denver Broncos have been found guilty of circumventing the salary cap on two separate occasions and the penalty for each of those was only about $950,000 and a third round draft pick. The Broncos won two Super Bowls during that time but you don't see our federal government making a case out of that. This actually brings me to my second point:

2. For all the talk, nobody has ever proved videotaping signals really gave the team an advantage. The assumption is there but nobody really knows for sure. Teams change defensive signals all the time. You can videotape them one week but the next week they could be something totally different. Teams do this because, one, other teams try to steal them (they just aren't videotaping them) and, two, players move from team to team and could help steal signals from a former coach if the changes aren't made. And, if you consider the Patriots went 16-0 and made it to the Super Bowl last year without the benefit of being able to videotape their opponents' signals, you have to think it probably didn't make much of a difference in their past three Super Bowl runs.