Spygate appealed to SCOTUS

I’d pay good money to watch Scalia and Belichick in fist fight.

The plantiff’s press release:

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT ASKED TO REVIEW

“SPYGATE” CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST NFL, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS, AND COACH BILL BELICHICK

Carl Mayer, Bruce Afran and Steve Schwarz, veteran consumer protection and public interest lawyers, have submitted to the United States Supreme Court a petition for a writ of certiorari in the class action lawsuit Mayer v. Belichick, et al.

The case alleges that the many thousands of sports fans who paid to see honest football games between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots were defrauded when Coach Belichick and the Patriots cheated by illegally videotaping the Jets’ play calling signals in the “Spygate” scandal.

“This is the most damaging scandal to hit professional sports since the Chicago Black Sox scandal of 1919 when the World Series was rigged.  The Courts need to ensure that the integrity of professional football is restored.  We know that the NFL has failed to police its teams and coaches after Spygate since just last month the Denver Broncos were caught doing the same thing in Spygate II,” Schwarz said.

The three attorneys filed suit on behalf of the ticketholders shortly after the Spygate scandal became public in the fall of 2007.  A federal district court judge sided with the NFL and the Patriots who argued that illegal videotaping was no different than an in-game penalty like holding and that fans have no right to see fair games.  A panel of appellate judges upheld that opinion.

“If consumers want to pay to see entertainment that is fixed or rigged, they would spend their dollars on wrestling ‘entertainment’ which has no governing body and no rules,” Mayer said.

“The Supreme Court has made it clear, as recently as this past May in the case of American Needle v. National Football Game, that a single team cannot produce a football game.  When the Patriots rigged the games they did not give the fans football games.  While the Patriots won the games, it was the consumers and fans that lost,” Afran said.

Mr. Afran, Mr. Schwarz and Mr. Mayer have successfully secured numerous judgments, settlements and verdicts for consumers, taxpayers and citizens over the last twenty-five years.  The three are prosecuting this matter at their own expense and welcome contributions from fans wishing to preserve the integrity of their sport.  Fans wishing to do so can send their contributions via Paypal to [email protected].