This is the front page of today’s Boston Herald, and when a newspaper issues a front-page apology, you know it seriously screwed up.

And when newspapers seriously screw up, sometimes they get sued. But while there’s a lot of speculation that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft will sue the Herald over its February 2 story claiming the team videotaped the St. Louis Rams’ last practice before the 2002 Super Bowl, such a lawsuit would be a bad idea. David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch explains:

we’d have to guess that the Herald is begging The Krafts for such action. Nothing sells papers or draws web traffic like a good lawyers-on-lawyers scrum involving a media entity and a professional sports franchise. Even if it would be costly for Pat Purcell to fend off the Krafts, the resulting documents from discovery and the potential depth into which Spygate could be dissected should be more than enough for the Patriots to talk tough now and slink away quietly, shortly.

That’s exactly right. It’s extremely difficult for public figures like Kraft to win libel lawsuits against newspapers, and even if they do win, they often find that so many embarrassing details come out over the course of the lawsuit that they regret filing it in the first place. The Patriots should accept the Herald’s apology and move on. AOL Fanhouse provided this story-thanks!

written by Roc