Specter of doom.

Senator Arlen Specter is doing his best to overshadow the biggest sports day of the year.

In a Capitol Hill press conference, Specter announced he would like the National Football League to explain why the tapes surrounding the New England Patriots’ spying controversy were destroyed. Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, will call NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell before the committee, to “address two issues: the league?s antitrust exemption in relation to its television contract and the destruction of the tapes that revealed spying by the Patriots.”

I am very concerned about the underlying facts on the taping, the reasons for the judgment on the limited penalties and, most of all, on the inexplicable destruction of the tapes … I think the integrity of football is very important, and I think the National Football League has a special duty to the American people ? and further the Congress ? because they have an antitrust exemption.

Specter sent a letter to Goodell in reference to the spying scandal on November 15 of last year, and another letter one month later after receiving no response. The league finally got back to Specter on Thursday, with an explanation the Pennsylvania Senator thought “absolutely makes no sense at all.”

In the past, Specter has issued idle threats to revoke the NFL’s antitrust exemption. In late 2006, while still Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Specter said he would sponsor legislation that would strip the league of its exemption. As far back as 1987, Specter accused the NFL of violating its antitrust exemption after the league negotiated a television contract with ESPN. In 2005, Specter “accused the NFL and Philadelphia Eagles of potentially violating antitrust laws” in relation to their treatment of then-Eagle Terrell Owens. In 1999, Specter “threatened to revoke the antitrust exemptions” of the NFL and baseball, “unless owners rein in demands for taxpayer-financed arenas.”