As NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell leaves his Hawaiian abode for a meeting with former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh, New England fans sit and wait for the golf pro to "spill the beans" on our dynasty.
When the first batch, and supposedly only batch, of illegal tapes were confiscated and "destroyed," the issues took a back seat to the upcoming draft prospects and the news stories of Michael Vick and Pacman Jones.
Up until now, I was beginning to think that this had completely blown over. Perhaps the Patriots could resume the offseason with a few new additions and possibly do quite well in the upcoming season.
I soon found that it wasn't going to be so easy.
Walsh was kindly called upon by commissioner Goodell after he had been cleared of all potential lawsuits by the Patriots organization. The commissioner is looking to unveil extra details regarding Walsh's evidence of the Pats' alleged cheating.
Commissioner Goodell and Walsh plan to meet on May 13th to exchange this information.
Given the information received, the Patriots organization could suffer an even bigger blow.
Walsh has been told to refrain from speaking to any other media sources before this meeting occurs. He has also refrained from receiving any commercial gain from this incident.
Walsh's history with the Patriots organization spans from 1996 to 2002, when the Patriots let him go.
The ex-video assistant was with the team up until the 2002 Super Bowl—where the Rams locker room allegations surfaced.
The current evidence does not point to a taping ever taking place.
Senator Arlen Specter, the Republican leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is one who has kept this whole debate alive. He has voiced his dislike of the investigative process the NFL has put in place.
The issue that I have with Senator Specter is the fact that this is not his place. He should allow the NFL to handle its business without the constant badgering.
To me, Matt Walsh is the final sledgehammer that the Patriots must dodge.
After the evidence is revealed, whether proved or disproved, the whole Spygate issue will add more fuel to the Patriots' fire. It will allow them to dominate once again next season.
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5 months ago
The Patriots cheated....there is no doubt in my mind. I am a huge Patriots fan and i really dont care. Its obvious everyone did the same thing, and New England could easily play that card but they wont, because They are not Dirty Rotten pieces of garbage. You dont snitch on other nfl teams
Eric Mangini is the lowest of the low.........he's a cheese eating rat. That guy was literally wiping off wet football during Patriots practices.that was his job. Belichick took him under his wing, and worked him up. Every knows Mangini or Crennel did not run those defenses, Belichick did. Now they are both head coaches thanks to Bill. Mangini returns the favor by ratting. What a complete scumbag. Just because he cant get together his crap team that is trying to hide a quarterback with the arm of Johnny Damon.
Not only is Pacman jones a scumbag, but he also "snitched" to save himself.......these guys suck.
5 months ago
Ryan,
According to Jay Glazer of Fox, copies of the tapes still exist. Glazer's the guy who got the tape which Fox showed on one of their pregame shows back in September. Glazer said that he still has his copies of the tapes. So even though Goodell destroyed the Patriots' copies, other copies still exist.
http://deadspin.com/383677/jay-glazer-owns-the-nfl
As I've said elsewhere, this whole thing really boils down to a camera placement technicality. There actually aren't any rules against recording signals. Although Ray Anderson mentioned signals in his memo, the rule invoked against the Patriots only addresses where teams aren't allowed to film from during games. Had the Pats filmed from outside those banned areas like all teams do when making game film, the league wouldn't have had a rule to use against them.
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