Before any of you people start on me, yes I admit it. I am a lifelong New England Patriots fan. Yes, I have been embarrassed by this whole “spygate” thing. Please sports fans, you have to admit that it is time for it to go away and let’s start talking about football in the way we should be.
After this past week’s release of the remainder of the video tapes, I thought it was finally going to be over. There was nothing new or special in the lot. There was no “smoking gun” that everyone was expecting. The commissioner has decided to call it a day on the matter and focus on the upcoming season. Then I read this last night:
Sen. Arlen Specter wants an independent investigation of the New England Patriots’ taping of opposing coaches’ signals, similar to the Mitchell Report on performance enhancing drugs in baseball.
Are you serious? The old guy just can’t move on with his life? Is he really that bitter over the Eagles Super Bowl loss? Give me a break. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. At this point we all know that nothing more will come of the “spygate” stuff. It just won’t. By the way, I am not angry because this is my football team. This goes way beyond football or sports in general. Do Senators have nothing better to do with their time and our money?
I decided in my anger last night to write an email to Senator Arlen Specter at his website. Here is a snippet of what I emailed him:
I am not sure if you will actually read this or not. This is the first time I have ever taken the time to send anything to a Senator. I realize that you are not from my home state of Tennessee but I felt compelled to write. With all of the important issues facing Americans today including housing, gasoline, the war, and not to mention the economy and upcoming election, why would tax payer money and government time be wasted with continuing an investigation into the NFL’s New England Patriots and the league itself? It is time to move on and focus on things that are truly important to the country. I am a huge sports fan myself and appreciate getting to the bottom of an important issue such as cheating but please it is time to focus on the issues.
I was quite proud of myself. There was nothing fancy in it. I wasn’t rude, just to the point. I waited with baited breath to read the form email that I expected to receive. I didn’t expect this:
I receive a large volume of E-mails, phone calls, faxes and letters every week from concerned citizens like yourself.
Unfortunately, due to the high volume of mail, I can only respond if you’re a resident of Pennsylvania.
This was part of the response I got in my form email from the Senator. Yep, it tells me in no uncertain terms that because I am not from his home state I have nothing important to say even though he is wasting the time and cash of ALL Americans not just Pennsylvanians.
Well, I am off to Bob Corker’s and Lamar Alexander’s websites to pass my feelings along to them. I can’t say I actually believe I will be heard. Please guys let’s focus on stuff that matters to a majority of this country’s citizens. I mean really Mr. Specter, what do you really get out of this proposed investigation? We all know that you MUST be getting something. You are a politician.
