At Indianapolis Combine, NFL Competition Committee Pauses to Discuss Spygate

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

The National Football League scouting combine is mostly an opportunity to look toward the future, but today the league's Competition Committee met in Indianapolis and discussed a story from the past that isn't going away: Patriotgate.

Atlanta Falcons executive Rich McKay, co-chair of the Competition Committee, said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sat down with committee members to give them an update on where the league's investigation stands on accusations that the Patriots illegally taped their opponents.

"Our role on that is only advisory," McKay said. "The commissioner's office briefed us on what the investigation was and what they found, asked us our opinion on the penalty, and asked us if there's anything from a league perspective that we want to address."

The other co-chair, Titans coach Jeff Fisher, said, "We don't anticipate the Patriots situation repeating itself because of the clear message the commissioner sent to the organization and the head coach."

Colts general manager Bill Polian pronounced himself "satisfied with what was done" and said, "That was a thorough, fair, efficient process with lots of integrity and they arrived at discipline that the commissioner thought was appropriate."

As far as McKay is concerned, he'd like to leave the issue in 2007 and not have it dominate the 2008 off-season.

"I view it as something that's happened, it's an incident that was dealt with, dealt with severely in my mind as far as the punishment that was given out, and in my mind it's yesterday's news. That doesn't mean that there aren't discussions that are ongoing, but this is an incident where a team admitted that something went on."

Photo: NFL Competition Committee members (left to right) Ozzie Newsome, Rich McKay, John Mara, Bill Polian, Jeff Fisher.