Draft Week downer

As NFL draft weekend approaches, another NFL story which just won't die has come back in to the lime light. Spygate. Matt Walsh, the former employee of the Patriots is all set to talk to Commissioner Goodell and tell him all he knows about the video-taping practices used by the Patriots in the past. People are expecting Walsh to divulge information or physical evidence that the Patriots video-taped a Rams' pre-SuperBowl walkthrough in 2001.

All I really have to say is: who cares? I am no Patriots or Bill Belichick fan- in fact I can't stand either of them. But give it a rest. They got caught. The Pats and Belichick were punished, and they aren't doing it anymore. And I don't think it was ever the main reason for their success. I think it is safe to say they didn't video-tape for the remainder of last season after they got caught- and they were still pretty good. And I am still sure that there were many other teams out there employing the same or similar tactics- they just didn't get caught. You can bet there were tape- destroying parties throughout the league when this news originally surfaced.

Goodell has said he will crack down on Patriots if new evidence is revealed stating, "Taping a walkthrough is much different from what I punished them for." What's the commish gonna to do? Take away the Pats' Super Bowl victory? Fine them more cash? Hollow penalties that won't erase what happened. On some level it is kind of like the steroid crisis in baseball. I am sure there were many people who knew it was going on at all levels. Then when it became a public issue, it was denounced and people were made examples of. But we're left in the same place. Correct the problem now and going forward, and let the past be just that.

Now I am not saying that any transgression in sports can and should be swept under the carpet. But rather than delve into the past to punish these transgressors- learn from it. Especially in unprecedented matters. Make sure it doesn't happen in your league again, and make it imperative for the league's members to adhere to strict guidelines in this matter in order safeguard the integrity of the game.

Most of all, I am just bored with this story. Even as a professed Patriot-hater, I can't summon up the energy to care. And with the draft approaching, it should be a celebration of what's good about this game right now- not what was wrong in the past. Oh, and if congress gets itself involved in this one, as Sen. Arlen Specter has hinted they might- I am going to stop paying taxes.