Way back is September, when Spygate first broke, I was the ringleader of sorts to a crack commando unit of Patriots conspiracy theorists, who believed we had proof that the Jets were doing the same “spying” on the Patriots in the same game.
We probably went a little overboard with the whole thing, but we were convinced that there was a cameraman in a Jets shirt on the grassy knoll of the Meadowlands shooting the Pats coaches. We had co-conspirators doing screen grabs of hi-def footage, creating websites and emailing every major news sources.
Maybe we were on to something, or maybe we were just in denial that our team had been caught red-handed, but the frenzy went on for about a week until the Pats throttled the Chargers in Week Two, and we all turned our attention to the first-ever undefeated regular season in NFL history.
But in that week, a collection of Pats fans across the country united to try and get the story out.
Below is an email I sent out to any football-covering website or writer whose email address I could find. Yes, it’s a bit comical to look back at, and I’m somewhat embarrassed by it now, but I felt it needed to be included here, at least for comedic effect. I’ve purposely deleted the pictures so no one will accuse me of trying to reignite the ire of Pats fans.
This is not going to go away. Maybe you've already gotten an email about this from some angry Pats fans. They've been getting word out to everyone they can, but the media seems content to only crucify the Patriots for "Tapegate". But there is absolutely something here that needs to be investigated further. We want to know who this guy is:
He appears throughout the game on the Jets sideline, often shooting video while the Patriots are on defense. He is not wearing a black vest that is mandatory by NFL rules for all videographers (even if he works for some Jets Insider show). In fact, it looks very much like he could be wearing the same shirt as Eric Mangini...
Notice our cameraman just to the right of the score standing amongst the Jets sideline. (Why he doesn't seem the least bit concerned that he just missed Randy Moss making a nice grab; seems odd if he were to be a member of the media...)
The picture below, taken just a second before, shows both Mangini and the Camera Man in what look to be very, very similar shirts. All we want to know is who this guy is. It looks very much like he's a Jets employee on the sidelines shooting video. This is illegal. This is what the Patriots were busted for. It doesn't matter what he was shooting. If he's a Jets employee with a video camera on the sidelines, he is in violation of the same rules. Something is not right here! Please someone stand up for us!
Okay, I know. Pretty bad. But I’m a passionate fan, and at the time I truly believed my team had been wronged.
Anyway, my point for bringing this back up, and at the risk of making myself look a little looney, is that of all the emails that were sent out only one person replied:
John Tomase of the Boston Herald.
His response was:
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8 months ago
Great article. You are dead on. Tomase I am sure is not anti-Patriot, but he had his eyes on making a name for himself and he saw a story and ran with it. And there isn't anything wrong with that, but as a journalist, you have to remember the basic fundamentals that were taught in the first ever news writing class you took. I think the patriots must be sick and tired of all of this, and as angry as they may be with the Herald, it may just be better off to say enough already. But I would love to find out if it wasn't Walsh, who was the source for Tomase? Chris Mortensen said the other week on Mike & Mike that a number of media outlets had the same story the Herald had but refused to run it because it just was not credible (which makes me laugh that all these outlets didn't find the story credible, but once the Herald took the bait, they had no problem reporting on someone else reporting the story).
And great point about Mike Fish - I would put him right next to Tomase - I think he saw his chance to be famous in this story, and now just can't let it go.
8 months ago
Hilarious art -- did you make that?
8 months ago
Walsh did not corroborate the Herald story. The Herald and Tomase are in big trouble. By journalistic standards, they should not have run the story in the first place. If after the fact they don’t get corroborated, the paper may be under new ownership, staffed with new reporters and editor by the end of the summer. Both the Herald and Tomase deserve everything coming to them.
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