Goodell defends order to destroy videotapes

PHOENIX - Spygate won't go away.

Roger Goodell defended his decision to destroy notes and videotapes linked to the New England Patriots' cheating scandal Friday, a day after Sen. Arlen Specter asked why the NFL commissioner trashed the evidence.

"The action that we took was decisive and it was unprecedented," Goodell said during his State of the NFL address, an annual news conference at the Super Bowl.

"I believe it was helpful in making sure our instructions were followed closely by not only the Patriots, but also by every other team. I think it was the appropriate thing to do. Our discipline sent a loud message."

Specter, R-Pa., said Goodell's explanation "didn't make any sense at all."

"If they are under lock and key at the NFL headquarters, they aren't going to be available at all," he said.

But Goodell said a copy of one of six tapes made either in 2006 or during the 2007 preseason had, indeed, made its way to the media before all the tapes were destroyed. "They may have collected it within the rules, but we couldn't determine that. So we felt that it should be destroyed," he said.

Goodell fined coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and docked the team $250,000 and a first-round draft pick.

Belichick talked Junior Seau into returning to football four days after the linebacker announced his retirement. And Seau, 39, is very happy he did.

Seau hasn't said this will be his last game. He's just hoping a Super Bowl championship will cap the Patriots' unbeaten season. "This game is such a big game that it's bigger than what I'm going to do after," Seau said.

FROM NEWS SERVICES