re: For those that believe the NFL is rigged, what would it take to convince you otherwise?

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NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - A New York Jets football fan cannot pursue his $184.8 million lawsuit over the secret videotaping of signals from Jets coaches by archrival New England Patriots, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Wednesday's unanimous ruling by a panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court dismissal of the lawsuit by Carl Mayer, a Princeton, New Jersey, lawyer with Jetsseason tickets, in a scandal known as "Spygate."

The case arose from the videotaping by a Patriots employee of signals from the Jets sideline in a Sept. 9, 2007, game.

The Patriots won 38-14, but the National Football League later fined the team and coach Bill Belichick, and stripped it of a 2008 first-round draft pick.

Mayer alleged the games were essentially rigged, saying the Patriots and Belichick defrauded ticketholders, and raised a claim against the NFL for destroying the videotapes.

But the appeals court said ticketholders possess only licenses or contractual rights to see games, and that it is up to the NFL to enforce its own rules if something goes amiss.

"We do not condone the conduct on the part of the Patriots and the team's head coach, and we likewise refrain from assessing whether the NFL's sanctions (and its alleged destruction of the videotapes themselves) were otherwise appropriate," Judge Robert Cowen wrote for the court.

He said unhappy fans can vent their frustration in other ways, including speaking out against the Patriots, Belichick or the league, or refusing to buy tickets or NFL merchandise.

"The one thing they cannot do is bring a legal action in a court of law," Cowen wrote.

Bruce Afran, a lawyer working with Mayer, said the ruling "invites professional teams to cheat, without liability to fans who pay to support them. It strikes us as very strange that one can spend tens of thousands of dollars for season tickets and have no right to be protected from fraud."

Afran said he would speak with Mayer to decide whether to appeal. Mayer, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello and a lawyer for the Patriots and Belichick did not immediately return calls seeking a comment.

Mayer had sought damages of $61.6 million representing the cost of tickets for Jets-Patriots games at Giants Stadium from 2000 through 2007, covering Belichick's tenure as coach, and wanted that sum tripled under federal racketeering laws.

The case is Mayer v. Belichick et al, U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 09-02237.

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