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Walsh turns out to be disaster for Hatriots Nation

May 13th, 2008 by Bill Burt

You can’t blame Matt Walsh. Just because somebody professes or promises to be able to bring a national force to its knees doesn’t mean it’s true.
The problem is so many people, including several national news organizations, believed him.
Spygate is officially over.
Walsh didn’t have that tape of the Rams Super Bowl walk-through. He also didn’t say the Patriots used those illegal tapes of coaches signals in the same game.
In fact, he refuted both possiblities, which probably would have led to more punishment had either been true.
If you were watching ESPN before and after the commissioner’s press conference, you would have noticed the bashing before and the pall afterward.
Former Broncos lineman Mark Schlereth and former Vikings and Eagles receiving great Cris Carter basically implied the Patriots were guilty before the press conference and they didn’t believe the commissioner afterward.
This means that the Patriots are still the most reviled franchise in the NFL. Hating the Patriots isn’t going away any time soon.
As for the Patriots, there is relief. Other than ticket scalping and an injured player practicing, this issue is off the NFL’s table.
We could slam the Patriots and Bill Belichick for what they did, but after eight months that punishment wouldn’t fit the crime. They’ve been punished enough (1st round pick in 2008 and $750,000 in fines).
I feel bad for Matt Walsh, I mean future coach Matt Walsh.
He couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t sit quietly in Hawaii in his new career with his new family. His dismissal from the Patriots five-plus years ago was apparently a difficult one.
Spygate is over. The hate, or jealously though, is still in vogue.
I would like your comments.

Posted in Patriots | View Comments

  • Mike

    Bill — enjoy your blog and hope all is well there. Why do you think so many particularly in the national media are clinging to the idea that the tapes of signals were used in game or future games to determine what play the opposition was going to run? Even Walsh apparently said that the tapes were not given to the staff until after the game, and we know that signals in the NFL are changed the next game or at least the next time you play the same team. So the tapes seem of little use in the regard that most critics have been saying they were used. The most plausible theory I have heard is that Belichick was compiling tendencies on other coordinators — what do they tend to call in this situation, or when shown a certain look. If one really wanted to steal signals, and I don’t doubt the Patriots or any other team would like to do that and have tried, then there are much more efficient ways of doing it than with the tapes we’ve seen. Like simply assigning a person or persons to focus on the opposition play calling and jot down what signals they make and what formation/play is used — a method that would be far easier and would not be against any rule. In short, are the critics that limited in their knowledge or understanding of the game that they can’t come up with anything better than to keep repeating this whole business about using the tapes to “steal signals”?

  • http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/STP43FAN/151656 Mike Daly

    Mike, yes and no. They don’t know about the game enough to cme up with anything better than “stealing signals” – heck, hey can’t even figure out that NOTING IS BEING STOLEN because they’re out in the open – but that’s not why they are riding this phony issue. They hate the Patriots and want to blackball Bill Belichick out of football, and they’re using Videogate to do so.

    If they were honest in their overage, SOMEONE in the MSM would have pointedout tat this rule in question is three paragraphs long, is vaguely worded to begin with, and isn’t about taping but in-game useof tape footage.

    Evenwhen he was telling the truth, Matt Walsh embellished his ass off (click my name on this post for a piece on where Walsh embellished).

  • http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/STP43FAN/151656 Mike Daly

    Bill, nobody should be slamming the Patriots for anything. That’s what is so frosty about this issue. They did not do anything wrong here. That Roger Goodell overreacted because Belichick figured out how to read the rule better than anyone else is the real scandal, not taping opposing coaches – I’m still mystified by Jeff Fisher’s comment when asked why the league dosn’t simply allw sideine taping; he said it would lead to “a ‘Star Wars’ era of football.” Huh?

    Guys, the league has no business policing videography; Goodell should have accepted Belichick’s interpretation of the ule and told Buffalo, Green Bay, the Jets, and whoever else was wining abut taping to shut up and play the game.

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