A source tells us that there’s a strong belief in league circles that multiple NFL teams are aware of evidence that might or might not have been turned over to the the league by the Patriots in connection with the Spygate scandal, and that such evidence could be disclosed if one or more of said teams conclude that the league isn’t doing enough to investigate the situation.

Of course, it’s unclear whether the league is aware of such evidence because it’s unclear what the league has.  Or, more accurately, had.

One thing that isn’t unclear is that there were indeed reports last year that the Pats’ practice of videotaping defensive coaching signals dated back to 2000.  We now recall Chris Mortensen of ESPN explaining this fact, and also pointing out that Pats coach Bill Belichick claimed that he believed that the practice fell within the scope of the rules. 

With that said, we still can’t recall an affirmative statement from the league in Octboer 2007  (as reported by the AP on Tuesday) that the taping dated back to 2000.  If we were cynics, we might think that the league engaged in a deliberate P.R. ploy to put the word out in this regard a day before the meeting between Commissioner Roger Goodell and Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), so that Goodell’s disclosure to Specter — and subsequent disclosure to the public — that the taping dated back to 2000 wouldn’t be mistakenly met with dropping jaws.

It’s a good thing we’re not cynics.

But even if that’s what happened, we can’t say we blame the league for refreshing everyone’s memory before giving Specter a nugget that he might have otherwise been able to paint as new information.