At a time when most of the country has moved past the Spygate controversy, Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) hasn’t.

On Thursday, Specter told the New York Times that he wants NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the destruction of the materials that the Patriots surrendered in connection with the investigation that followed a finding that a team employee had been videotaping defensive coaching signals, in violation of league rules, during a Week One win over the Jets.

“That requires an explanation,” Specter told the Times.  “The [NFL] has a very preferred status in our country with their antitrust exemption.  The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game.  It’s analogous to the [CIA] destruction of tapes.  Or any time you have records destroyed.”

Specter sent one letter in November 2007 and one in December 2007.  Appearing on The Dan Patrick Show on Friday morning, Specter explained that the November letter was sent as the Patriots were preparing to play the Philadelphia Eagles, who fall within Specter’s jurisdiction.  Specter said that he wanted to know whether cheating might have tainted New England’s three-point win over the Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX. 

The December letter sought an explanation as to why the materials confiscated by the league were destroyed.  He finally got a response this week, and he describes the league’s explanation for the delayed response as “untrue.”

“It’s the same old story,” Specter told the New York Times.  “What you did is never as important as the cover-up.  This sequence raises more concerns and doubts.”

Specter told Patrick on Friday that there are several matters to be discussed with Goodell.  Specter wants to know, first and foremost, why materials were destroyed.  He also wants to know whether there were other kinds of cheating that were discovered, beyond merely the videotaping of defensive coaching signals.

As the rumor mill tells the story, the NFL’s position is that the materials were destroyed due to a concern that they could not adequately be secured.  After all, Jay Glazer of FOX somehow got his mitts on the actual Spygate tape.  But the rumor mill also suggests that the real reason for the decision was that Belichick included in the submission to the league all information available to him regarding other teams engaging in similar tactics.

Regardless of the reason, destruction of evidence always raises eyebrows, regardless of the context.  And though it appeared for a while that the only legal complication would be a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of Jets ticket-buyers that, to our knowledge, has gone nowhere, the league might eventually have to answer tough questions in a public forum about the conscious decision to spoliate evidence.