Last week, Senator Arlen Spector announced that he would be pursuing an investigation into the NFL. In particular, Senator Spector is interested in how the NFL handled a cheating scandal early in the year, when the New England Patriots were caught videotaping their opponent’s defensive calls–effectively spying and gaining an unfair advantage.
This has thrown most casual sports fans into a tizzy–and with good reason. With controversial government wiretapping schemes, a money-sucking quagmire in Iraq, a broken health care system and a stagnant economy, most are crowing, “Doesn’t the government have anything better to do!?”
Well, there’s more to this than a frivolous investigation. The NFL is a multi-billion dollar industry, whose integrity was compromised in the first game of the 2007 season. Equal competition is the product that they’re selling, and that product was contaminated this season.
Consider these examples:
- If Tyco starts selling lead-based toys, the Senate has a right to investigate–especially if they think there’s some kind of cover up, as seems to be the case with the NFL.
- If McDonald’s starts selling poisonous french fries, then abruptly stops without comment, the Senate has a right to investigate.
- If Enron starts misrepresenting its financial viability to its investors, and there are indications that their claims are untrue, the Senate has a right to investiage.
Wait… that last one actually happened. And it’s a perfect example of why the Senate is well within its bounds to investigate this multi-billion dollar industry.
It might not be illegal to videotape another team’s practice, but it IS illegal to misrepresent your product. If the NFL had the opportunity to discover or announce further competitive discrepancies, and turned its back on them to save face, that constitutes fraud.
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