NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he doesn’t believe the Spygate issue taints the Patriots’ perfect season.

The Providence Journal/ / Gretchen Ertl

PHOENIX — Roger Goodell wasn’t giving many detailed answers yesterday on the subject of Spygate, but maybe he’ll offer more when he’s called before Congress in the coming months.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), in an article in yesterday’s New York Times, said he will call the NFL commissioner to Capitol Hill to discuss why Goodell destroyed the tapes and other materials that the New England Patriots handed over in the days after the team was caught filming New York Jets defensive signals in the season-opener at the Meadowlands.

Goodell acknowledged that covert activity and trying to figure out the opposition’s signals are part of the game. In the first quarter of that Sept. 9 Jets game, New England employee Matt Estrella was approached by NFL Security and removed from the field. The tape in his video camera was confiscated and an investigation begun.

In the largest fine ever levied by the NFL, Bill Belichick was docked $500,000, the Patriots organization an additional $250,000, and the team lost its natural first-round pick in this April’s draft.

Goodell asked for, and received without resistance, notes, videotapes and files dating back to 2000, when Belichick took over the Patriots. He destroyed the evidence without much explanation as to what information was contained in the materials. The tape from the Jets game was leaked to FOX Sports; Goodell seemed bothered by the breach.

But, he said, the tapes — he did allow that there were six, though he would not say which teams were involved — were “totally consistent” with what the Patriots had told him would be on them and that there was no further purpose for them.

Goodell went on to say that nearly every team tries to figure out signals.

“In one of the tapes, one of the coaches was waving at the camera, indicating that they understood that they were being taped,” he said. “Taking signals from opposing football teams or in other sports is done and it is done quite widely and teams prepare for that. There isn’t a team that doesn’t go into a game prepared for that. They all protect against that.”

Many of the notes the league collected from New England, Goodell said, were likely much the same as other teams have.

“There were notes that have been collected that I would imagine many teams have when they scout a team in advance, that may have been collected by using an illegal activity,” he said. “We wanted to take that information and destroy that information also. We did that. They may have collected that information within the rules of the NFL, but we felt it was appropriate, since we couldn’t determine that, that we take care of all of it.”

Specter said the destruction “requires an explanation” and equated it to the destruction of CIA tapes.

More than once during his annual state of the NFL address, Goodell stressed that he did not believe the Pats’ actions affected the outcome of any game, including their three Super Bowl victories.

It also does not taint the team’s 18-0 and potential 19-0 record this year, Goodell said.

“I don’t think it taints their accomplishments. The action that we took was swift and decisive and it was unprecedented. It sent a loud message to not only the Patriots, but every NFL team that you should follow the rules and you better follow the rules,” he said. “I think what they did this season was certainly done within the rules on a level playing field. I think their record is extraordinary.”

smanza@projo.com