Yahoo! Sports removes line in story about alleged Broncos spying

3/4/2008 11:28 PM

DENVER (AP) -Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday removed a paragraph in a nearly 6-month-old story that alleged secret videotaping by the Denver Broncos after coach Mike Shanahan's attorney sent a letter to the Internet giant demanding a retraction.

Yahoo! Sports editors also added a note saying the paragraph in the Sept. 13 article did not meet the site's editorial standards, spokeswoman Nicol Addison said.

The story, written when the videotape cheating scandal involving the New England Patriots dominated the news, had been cited by various media outlets around Denver in recent weeks.

``We took immediate action to eliminate the content from our site as soon as we became aware of this matter,'' the editor's note said.

Without citing sources, the paragraph alleged the San Diego Chargers added security on a hill next to the team's practice complex because Shanahan hired spies to videotape the Chargers' practice. The paragraph also said the NFL knew about the alleged taping.

In a letter sent Feb. 26, Shanahan's attorney Harvey Steinberg called the paragraph ``completely untrue and without foundation'' and the article ``defamatory and libelous.''

After the paragraph was removed, Steinberg said: ``I appreciate Yahoo's acknowledgment of their mistake and I'm glad they took the first step in righting the wrong.''

Greg Aiello, the NFL's spokesman, also called the article inaccurate.

``We are not aware of any such video and no one in our office has seen the video,'' Aiello said in an e-mail.

On the Net:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slugjc-historynflcheating&provyhoo&typel gns