A Patriot Fan's Thoughts on Spygate's End, Matt Walsh and The Boston Herald

Matt Walsh, Matt Walsh, Matt Walsh…

What can I say that hasn’t been said already by someone else, somewhere else, most likely in better English and maybe with a few added expletives?

I’m actually not THAT mad at the mysterious Mr. Walsh.

I discovered recently, through his own reported testimony and the stolen video tapes he returned to the NFL, that Matt Walsh didn’t attempt to destroy the Patriots’ Super Bowl weekend. 

It wasn’t him.

Sure, he did his part to ruin the first half of the offseason for Patriot fans. 

I mean, Matt, you didn’t have a Rams’ walk-through tape.  You KNEW, presumably, the entire time that you didn’t have a walk-through tape. 

Would it have killed you to say so? 

But I’m not holding that against him, and neither should anyone else. 

I’m still bitter against former employers that did far less than fire me for illegally taping conversations.

I was once fired from a D'Angelo Sub Shop because I refused to wash the dishes after I completed my deliveries for the day (the other delivery guy left early for the second time that week…I was completely in my right). 

That said, I probably deserved to be fired…after all, I’m not sure a manager who’s just been called a “bleep-eating cow” can do anything BUT fire you.

Joke was on her though—she had to do the dishes.

Point is, if some newspaper reported allegations against D'Angelo Sub Shops, and I had the chance to make their life miserable for a couple of months, I’d gladly take it. 

Heck, I might even make something up when Senator Specter came knocking…especially if I had a signed contract that said I couldn’t get in any trouble for it (which I would have demanded).

Why did Matt Walsh do what he did? 

The better question is, who wouldn’t have? 

Turns out, I was mad at the wrong guy. 

This whole time we all assumed Matt Walsh was the source of the now erroneous Boston Herald article claiming that the Patriots taped the Rams walk-through. 

We were wrong.

Apparently, the same rumors I read on a St. Louis Rams message board a couple of weeks after the Super Bowl upset was repeated to the Boston Herald reporter by…someone.  Not a Patriots employee, or a former employee.  But someone. 

Maybe Marshall Faulk, between forgetting who plays on the Buffalo offensive line and downplaying the Patriots’ perfect regular season, decided to place a call to the Boston Herald. 

After all, there’s no way the Rams could have lost that Super Bowl without the Patriots cheating.  Big upsets never happen unless someone cheats.

You hearing me, Eli!?!?!

Whispers and unfounded rumors were all the Herald needed to run to print the day before the Super Bowl. 

But, it’s the bloggers who have no integrity and are ruining the sports media, right Bob Costas?

It’s not even the writer, whose name I will not mention, that deserves most of the blame. 

SOMEONE at the Herald should have known better.  Someone at the Herald should have put integrity ahead of selling papers. 

Someone at the Herald should have nixed this ridiculous, unfounded, and irresponsible article.

ESPN and Fox Sports both acknowledged hearing the rumors about the Patriots taping the Rams’ walk-through, but claimed it didn’t meet the journalistic standard required to run with the story.

Like I said, I read the rumor back in March of 2002 on an AOL message board.

Do you think ESPN and Fox Sports didn’t want to break that story?  Of course they did!  But they realized, as the Herald should have, that there was no basis for the rumors.  Nothing.  Nadda.

It was easy to believe, because the Patriots had already been caught legitimately breaking the rules earlier in the year.   So the Herald threw it out there in the hopes that it was actually true.

It wasn’t.  Now they must pay.

The writer should be fired.  The guy who allowed the story to go to print should be fired.  And his boss should go with him. 

The Patriots are already talking about a lawsuit, which I support wholeheartedly.   I’ve heard some fans calling for a boycott, which I would support if I ever actually bought a Boston Herald in the first place. 

I’m sure Specter is going to call for firings, suspensions, more fines, and the end of the NFL Network (he is on Comcasts’ payroll, after all). 

But if he has any integrity at all (which he doesn’t), the only head he’ll be calling for tomorrow is the head of the guy who runs the Boston Herald.

For wasting his time, the NFL’s time, and Patriot fans’ time.

Screw you, Boston Herald.

Sean Crowe is a Senior Writer at Bleacher Report. You can email him at [e-mail].  His archive can be found here. You can find everything he writes, including articles for other publications, here.