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		Why did the Boston Herald cover up for the Patriots? By Stefani Rebekah Black May 17, 2008

	This whole thing about the Boston Herald's front cover story this past week saying they made a mistake in accusing the New England Patriots, team owner Bob Kraft, and Bill Belichick of spying and filming other teams, was a political cop out. This has been going on all the way back to 2000 when George Bush stole the election from Al Gore and was appointed by the Supreme Court for his current job. From that time on, it seemed like the Patriots were appointed to win Super Bowls. Competition has to be open, and players have to compete, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has some things he has to answer to and he's been kind of appointed. Goodell is kind of the post Paul Tagliabue (former Commissioner) and it continues to this day in the NFL. When Tagliabue took over, it was a time when the country's climate was centered on patriotism and really promoting the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. From then, the Patriots just seemed to be the link for the media, the corporations, which are completely supported by the government at this point to continue to promote this idea of patriotism. So they had to figure out a way to have the Patriots win. So the NFL allowed them to cheat. The NFL is in on this too, because why wouldn't the NFL be willing to investigate and have an outside party investigate them? Why did the NFL destroy evidence pertinent to the whole process? The NFL had other teams video taped. Who are these other teams complaining? Where's the other evidence? Well, we don't have it because Roger decided to throw it away. Roger Goodell is in his Bud Selig moment; he has to make a decision here. Is Goodell going to step up and keep the integrity of his sport where it should be at a competitive mode? Or is he going to go the way of the NBA, and that is, to allow cheating to continue, and not only continue, but to flourish and be league-mandated. That's completely going to change the landscape of how fans react to sports and whether or not you could really use it, you don't really call it a sport, you can just call it entertainment, which is what the NFL is. Where is the public in all of this?: If the public can get there hands on this investigation and actually instigate it through a Senator or through a Congress person, then you will see more teams coming into the fold and hear what happened to them in key games against the Patriots. For instance, we know the Ravens had complained about their playoff games with New England, and whether or not New England cheated during that game, there were some calls that were questionable, helping them to move on to the Super Bowl in 2002. This is a clear signal that there was some cheating going in that Tuck Bowl and that allowed “that” fumble to happen and those signals in the Super Bowl, going all the way back to 2003 with the Oakland Raiders. The NFL is using this opportunity to have the teams win that they want to win and other teams have been culprits in this too, but in order to get to the heart of it, we need to find out exactly who those people are. So this investigation should be going through the people and the public at large; they're going to have to do it. The NFL is not going to investigate itself thoroughly the same way the government would investigate itself thoroughly with the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles. Why did the Boston Herald apologize to New England?: This story is really, really going deep; it's going far beyond the New England Patriots and the Kraft family and their success overall. This goes back to the integrity of the sport and it goes back to the news media and whether or not they are asking pertinent questions that they should be. The fact that the Boston Herald should apologize to the Pats for something is really suspicious. Everybody wants to keep this same glossed-over kind of reputation for the Patriots that they’re somehow pristine, and couldn't possibly do anything wrong to hurt anybody. After all, they’re the Patriots. Well now that the Bush administration will hopefully be leaving office, barring some sort of Marshall Law declaration, maybe we can get to the bottom of this Roger Goodell and the NFL situation. The media is involved in this too. There are a lot of parties here that have to be held accountable. Number one, the media, not going after the truth and the story. Number two, the corporations, for not being involved in such an insidious business practice. Stefani Rebekah Black covers the Oakland Raiders and the NFL for Sportstalk Radio.