Shanahan Aggressively Denies “Spygate II” Allegations

With the New England Patriots “Spygate” charges stealing the NFL headlines as of late, any hint or indication of spying or cheating in the NFL is taken as seriously as possible. Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan was casually accused of cheating in a September Yahoo! Sports article, and is now lashing back at the author and publisher, calling the story “bogus.” The original article, found here, was published on September 13 of last year, but wasn’t noticed for its pointed accusations toward Coach until recently.

Below is the excerpt in question:

More recently, the San Diego Chargers increased their security several years ago at a hill overlooking the practice field at the team facility during weeks when they played the Denver Broncos. Why? It turns out Broncos coach Mike Shanahan had been hiring spies to videotape the Chargers practices. The NFL had been aware of it for several years (at least one NFL official had seen one of the tapes), but didn’t step in because it was considered a team issue.

Now Shanahan is lashing back at his accusers, vehemently denying the claims and accusing the author and publishers of libel. The Rocky Mountain News reports that Shanahan and his lawyers have written a letter to several higher-ups at Yahoo!, demanding a retraction and apology.

The full letter (in PDF format) can be found here. Highlights from the RMN story and more after the jump:

In a letter addressed to Yahoo senior NFL writer Jason Cole and sent to the company’s corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., Shanahan’s attorney, Harvey Steinberg, of Denver, called the paragraph regarding Shanahan in the original story “completely untrue and without foundation.”

Copies of the letter also were sent to Yahoo CEO Jerry Wang, president Susan Decker, co- founder David Filo and executive vice president and general counsel Michael J. Callahan.

The letter goes on to say “Coach Shanahan has never engaged in any such practice, let alone even discussed the possibility of any such activities. As a result, this article is defamatory and libelous.”

The letter also asserts Shanahan was not contacted to comment on the story before it was published, which was “in our mind, evidence of either actual malice towards coach Shanahan or reckless disregard for the truth.”

The Broncos said Monday that Shanahan would refer to the letter as his public response to the story.

The letter also states the NFL has told Shanahan and his representatives the league never was made aware of any “alleged spying” on Chargers practices or of the existence of any videotape.

The league also is said to have denied any league official has seen the videotape referenced in the story.

Asked Monday about the original Yahoo story, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in a statement: “We were aware of no such thing. The report is bogus and does not cite any sources for the erroneous information.”

The folks at Yahoo! have yet to comment.

Glad to see Shanahan is denying these claims so vigorously. The writer of the story didn’t cite sources, didn’t contact Shanahan or, apparently, anyone in the league offices, yet wrote something that can be seriously damaging to a person’s credibility. Textbook libel. It’ll be interesting to see if Yahoo! stands by their writer or apologizes and retracts.

• Shanahan denies spying allegation [Rocky Mountain News]
• Ancient antics [Yahoo! Sports]
• Letter to Jason Cole and Yahoo! Sports (PDF file) [Rocky Mountain News]