Specter wants independent probe into NFL’s ‘Spygate’

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) on Wednesday called for an independent investigation into the New England Patriots videotaping controversy and said he has learned that the team’s practice was far more widespread than previously believed.

Specter, whose state is home to two NFL teams that the Patriots are alleged to have filmed signals from, said that a Tuesday meeting with former Patriots assistant Matt Walsh brought the claim that the team taped its opponents for seven years — between 2000 and 2007 — and not just from 2000 to 2002.

{mosads}Specter said the NFL “owes the public a lot more candor and a lot more credibility” in its handling of the controversy. The senator stopped short of alleging a cover-up but said he may press the Senate to hold hearings on the NFL’s antitrust exemption if the league does not launch a credible outside inquiry like the probe into steroids in baseball led last year by former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine).

“What is necessary is an objective investigation,” Specter said, saying that the league is distributing information “piecemeal and only when forced to do so.”

The senator, who is up for reelection in 2010, is the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) briefly attended Specter’s meeting with Walsh on Tuesday and is fully aware of the situation.

A Judiciary Committee aide noted that Specter, as the committee’s ranking member, controls a minority of the committee budget and can therefore fund some congressional action. Specter said Leahy has also agreed to authorize committee money.

Specter said he was not accusing the NFL of a cover-up, only shoddy investigative work. Walsh did not tell NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday of the Patriots’ taping between 2002 and 2007, for example, because he wasn’t asked, Specter said.

“ ‘Cover-up’ is a very strong term and I’m not going to use it — yet,” Specter said.

Specter made a clear suggestion that the league’s antitrust exemption could be in peril, saying the exemption was “worth its weight in wildcats” and that the league has an obligation to children and young athletes.