Football season may be over, but the early season "spygate" scandal involving the New England Patriots and Coach Bill Belichick's illegal videotaping of the New York Jets' defensive play-calling signals may just be getting started.  Senator Arlen Spector is looking into the possibility of congressional hearings over the NFL's destruction of videotaped evidence of the Patriot's wrongdoing.  Belichick and the Patriots drew fire and a record fine from the NFL which included $750,000 and the forfeiture of a top draft choice. 

Prior to this year's Super Bowl contest between the Patriots and the New York Giants, NFL officials demanded and received the purported videotapes taken by the Patriots of their opponents over the past several years.  After reviewing the tapes, the NFL destroyed them.  In a letter dated January 31, 2008, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged destruction of the tapes to "ensure that the Patriots would not secure any competitive advantage as a result of the misconduct that had been identified."

This must have been news for lawyers representing plaintiffs in a class action filed last September against the Patriots and Belichick on behalf of New York Jets season ticket holders who allege injury as a result of the Patriots' actions.  Once a party is put on notice of potential litigation, it must take affirmative steps to preserve evidence relevant to the claims and defenses in the action.  Destruction of such evidence is called "spoliation" and can result in sanctions, including an adverse instruction to the jury that the evidence was relevant and damaging to the party that destroyed it.