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NFL Should Suspend 'Tape Man'

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 20, 2008

TAMPA - Did I miss something here?

Didn't Bill Belichick cheat?

Didn't he cover it up?

This is why SpyGate won't go away.

It won't go away, though Sen. Arlen Specter (Eagles fan) and his demands for an independent investigation probably should.

It won't go away, though Matt Walsh (Matt Walsh fan) should say aloha and go back to picking up range balls in Hawaii.

It won't go away, though a Boston newspaper has apologized for alleging the Patriots taped the Rams' walk-through before the Super Bowl in 2002.

It won't go away, though NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wants it to go away.

It won't.

And it shouldn't.

Good, But No Good

It shouldn't go away until Belichick wipes that unrepentant look off his face.

When, exactly, did this cat become the victim?

I'd suspend him for smugness alone.

I'd suspend him to start this NFL season.

Granted, frontier justice has already been meted out (Giants 17, Patriots 14).

It's not enough.

You have to make your way through SpyGate in hip waders. We don't know who to believe, at least completely.

But it's clear that the New England Patriots head coach knew what he was doing was wrong, knew it a damned long time ago, but kept doing it.

There has been a cover-up.

I'm not talking about Goodell destroying the tapes, though I could.

I mean a Belichick cover-up.

Heck, Billy B. could beat yours with his or beat his with yours. He's that good.

But he's no good, too.

No one is saying the world turns on this. I was reminded of this Sunday night after watching a CNN special on rising oil and gas prices, which was immediately followed by Larry King's searing one-hour interview with Ryan Seacrest.

But I think lying matters. A lot.

Belichick should take a fall. I'm not talking another fine or more forfeited draft picks. I mean a real fall, a seat on the sideline for at least a few games.

Yes, it's hard listening to Sen. Specter. Arlen, Senator - bubby - why the conspiracy nuttiness now? Where were you when we needed you 45 years ago, after Dallas, when you championed the single-Oswald theory - that one bullet had gone through JFK, Gov. Connally and two guys standing on a street corner in Lubbock.

Hammer Swings Only So Far

I still can't see how Goodell can let Belichick skip out on accountability. This is the same commish who was right to land hard on losers Michael Vick and Pacman Jones.

Now Goodell wants to drop SpyGate. Why? Because the league can't endure this misery? Because it doesn't want to step on Patriots owner Robert Kraft's feet? I see, when its teams and owners and coaches, the hammer swings only so hard.

What a shame. The Patriots could have been the model franchise. Only they're not, and it starts with a supremely talented great head coach who turned out to be a flawed man, a man who still can't admit what he did, or how long he did it, and how wrong it was in the first place.

Suspend him to start the season.

Say the NFL's teeth cut both ways.

Pacman or Tape Man.

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