Here is Glauber's story about Roger Goodell, Arlen Specter and Spygate.
I read an article on this in another paper today that said Specter's motivation for getting involved in such trivial matters when the world has bigger problems is mysterious.
No it isn't. Sen. Specter (R-Pa.) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast, which has been at war with the NFL over stuff such as distribution of the NFL Network, access to "Sunday Ticket" and the NFL's decision a couple of years back not to sell Comcast its new Thursday-Saturday package.
(Oops. WatchDog strives to be apolitical. Sorry about that.)
Comments (9)
Well Mr. Best you continue to show your biasness in this whole thing....the NFL screwed the cable networks by freezing them out of Sunday Ticket and giving an exclusive to a company that at best can reach less than 50% of the country and is now trying to say they never wanted Sunday Ticket to be widely available.
The NFL just wasn't as smart as mlb (or maybe mlb was forced into it by the Senate Committee Spectar used to be head of bus is now the ranking Republican and John Kerry is head of the committee) which leveraged its Extra Innings package against carrying mlb network on extended basic cable...the NHL did the same thing with Center Ice and now the NHL Network is available...if the NFL Network and its carriage on cable were so important, the NFL would have found a way to leverage it against Sunday Ticket...but they have chosen not to
So in this instance, Spectar has every right to question the NFL's exemption from anti trust laws when they (the NFL) have been acting like spoiled children because they can't get their way on the NFL Network.
Good for Senator Spectar I say...let the NFL once and for all answer to the people for its arrogance (and lies how they want to make as many games available to the public as possible, then why not Sunday Ticket for everybody?????)...and also please tell me what happened to the triple headers (Fox, CBS, ESPN) we used to get on the final two Saturdays of the season if the NFL is so interested in making its games available to as many people as possible?
what does this have to do with a senator wasting his time looking into destroyed spy tapes of football signals?
Hey, Neil. If Comcast was so against the NFL even after the Thursday/Saturday package went to NFL Network, why is it that they have made the NFLN Hi-Def channel available to most of its systems, ahead of both NBA-TV in Hi-Def or the NHL Network in Hi-Def[Even with Comcast's better relationship with the NHL]?
And Jeff, in all due respect, the networks would have given the NFL a smaller money pacakge if the Sunday Ticket was made available to the cable systems a few years ago. The local stations would see smaller ratings in their local markets[as well as lower local advertising revenues] since there is a much higher penetration of cable homes as opposed to homes with DirecTV, which at the time, owned by Fox[since sold to Liberty Media]. In addition, there were some cable systems that didn't have the bandwidth to carry all the channels needed to carry the Sunday Ticket at that time. IMO, by 2010 or 2011, when the DirecTV exclusivity expires, InDemand[the cable conglomerate's PPV arm] will probably have a shot at getting into he Sunday Ticket game.
Good call Neil. Thanks for calling a "spade a spade".
Specter's performance is disgraceful, and I'm a lifelong Republican.
He has no business in this at all. That he's there carrying water for Comcast is even more disgraceful and undignified.
NFL Sunday Ticket will never,NEVER be available to cable.
As long as the NFL has OTA network partners. NEVER.
Can't understand why Jeff and the Cablevision crowd won't accept this.
You don't have an inalienable right to watch the NFL on the cable provider of your choice.
If you want Sunday Ticket, get DirecTV, if you can't get it at your present location MOVE.
Just quit whining.
I don't understand why the cable networks just don't give their viewers the NFLN. I don't have Sunday Ticket, but I have Direct TV and the NFLN like I have the NHL Network but no NHL Center Ice. There NFL, there's an argument on your behalf.
I personally would prefer not to have opportunistic politicians like Specter investigating this matter. If anything there should be a full independent investigation on everything from that Walsh guy to whom was the person who gave Jay Glazer that raw footage. I don't really know how to punish the Patriots but I must say the punishment was soft. Taking away their money, chump change really, has little bearing and just one draft pick is not enough.
I personally would have taken the route of the way the NBA punished the Timberwolves for violating the salary cap for the Joe Smith incident by taking away all of their picks an X amount of years to really send a message about spying as Stern did by making an example out of the T'Wolves by cheating the salary cap.
Specter came off as a complete embarrasment on M&MD Show yesterday.
He's pissed for 2 reasons,
1.NFL played hardball with Comcrap
2.Patriots beat his beloved Eagles in the Super Bowl.
He's trying his best to sully that game.
Uneffing believeable. A huge balck eye for the GOP.
OMG!! A politician (especially a republican) who's in a giant corporation's back pocket?? That's not possible! Grow up people! I think what he's doing is fantastic, and I hope that Comcast IS behind it. A couple of points in response to some of the earlier comments;
1. Cable HAS had the bandwidth, since 1997, if not earlier. Ever since they've offered digital cable.
2. Given that the NFL wanted to charge 4X the amount that espn charges to carry both espn AND espn2, it is irrational and impractical for a company to carry it on basic. Why raise everyone's cable bill? (I pay enough as it is)
3. In my opinion, maybe they don't have NBA tv and the NHL network in HD, because;
a. Basketball sucks, and
b. Not many people care about hockey.
SPECTER IS A JACKASS////// THAT IS A FACT AS IS GOODELL GOING EASY ON THE PATS BELLICHEAT SHOULD BE OUT OF THE NFL