John Tomase

[RayClay]

All Tomase did was take that rumor and assume that Matt Walsh had the proof it was true.

And be the Patriots beat writer, one of two people in the world the average person sees as knowing everything about the Patriots, therefore giving tis story broken on the eve of the Superbowl incredible credibility.

*imaginary Joe fan quote*

"Why would the Patriots beat writer risk his career to break this story? It must be true."

You keep avoiding this obvious point, this wasn't just some blurb in a sports magazine.

 

[Rob0729]

And be the Patriots beat writer, one of two people in the world the average person sees as knowing everything about the Patriots, therefore giving tis story broken on the eve of the Superbowl incredible credibility.

*imaginary Joe fan quote*

"Why would the Patriots beat writer risk his career to break this story? It must be true."

You keep avoiding this obvious point, this wasn't just some blurb in a sports magazine.

I am not missing the point, you seem to be. There was already a sh*t storm because of the Times and ESPN pieces. I never said the Tomase story wasn't huge. I am saying that even without it, the Patriots were already buried deep in it 48 hours before the Super Bowl.

People act like the Matt Walsh story which is separate from the walkthrough story was some kind of puff piece that everyone laughed off. This was a big story on Friday before Tomase's piece. Tomase's piece didn't do a huge amount to change it because it was already huge. If Tomase's story came out without the other two though, it would have been a bigger bombshell. But by Friday night, most of the country felt that Matt Walsh had some explosive damaging evidence against Belichick. Saturday morning, Tomase gave the world the piece of evidence that they could infer that Walsh had.

People also seem to want to ignore that Specter and Bishop timed their piece to cause a disruption for the Pats to lose the Super Bowl and without them outing Matt Walsh, Tomase would have never written his article because Walsh claiming he had evidence against the Pats was the catalyst for Tomase to run with that story.

I blame Bishop (who most Pats fans give a total free pass to) and Specter far more than I blame Tomase. Everyone should IMHO.

 

[NEGoldenAge]

.:trolls:.

 

[RayClay]

I never said the Tomase story wasn't huge.

So you're saying it was huge.

 

[Rob0729]

So you're saying it was huge.

I said on it's own it was huge, but the impact was minimized because the story was already exploding because of the Times and ESPN articles. If Tomase's article came out on it's own, there would have been the same media explosion. But if Tomase didn't publish his story, I think there would still be a similiar sh@t storm. Specter was going to make Matt Walsh an issue no matter what Tomase wrote.

Again my point is that Tomase for everything that happened that weekend and all things Matt Walsh, but reality he was just one of many players. I blame Greg Bishop and Arlen Specter more than Tomase. Specter gets his crap from Pats fans, but Bishop is largely forgotten in this mess.

 

[Ring 6]

No they weren't. Matt Walsh was fired four years before Spygate. Both stories introduce Matt Walsh to the sports world. Both stories said Matt Walsh had evidence that would sink the Pats and the NFL. As far as the world knew, Walsh could have had stuff even more damaging than a videotape of a walkthrough.

And Tomase didn't invent the Rams' walkthrough story. Tom Curran and Michael Holley both reported that rumor back in September of 2007. All Tomase did was take that rumor and assume that Matt Walsh had the proof it was true.

Again, you are missing by miles if you think a rumor of something and a local reporter saying he has a source from the organization saying they won the SB because they taped the other teams practice, on the eve of the SB.
I don't care about 'inventing' the story, I care about INVENTING that there was proof of something that never happened.

 

[Ring 6]

First, Tomase did not make up the Rams' Walkthrough story. The rumor was around long before Tomase was covering the team.

He made up that there was evidence

Second, I am not defending him.

Well, every one of your posts in this thread sounds extemely defensive.

I am just pointing out people's irrational hate of the guy should be directed at the people who deserve it more like Arlen Specter, Greg Bishop, and Mike Fish.

Irrational? On the eve of the SB he made up a story that there was proof that the miraculous win in SB XXXVI was done by cheating and that the way the PAtriots operate is to sneak around and spy on the other teams practices. That is 100x more damaging than the actual Spygate BS.
Specter wouldn't let it die, but at least he didn't flat out lie in order to try to bring negative attention to the PAtriots and create a distraction the night before the game.

Without those three, Tomase would have never ran with the story.

And you aren't defending him? You have no way of knowing that. He lied, how can you claim he has integrity?

And at least Specter's and Bishop's intentions were to sink the Pats' Super Bowl hopes.

I don't know how you get that.

Tomase deserves most of the crap he gets, but people act like the Pats weren't already under the microscope because of Matt Walsh's allegations before Tomase's story. If it wasn't so dead on this board, I probably wouldn't have even cared.

No one else lied and said there was a tape. You are trying to say what he did was OK because someone else somewhere broached the topic. That doesnt excuse his unprofessional, scummy actions.

 

[dhamz]

No one else lied and said there was a tape.

I think technically Matt Walsh was the one who lied and said there was a tape. If you listen to the Felgers, Currans, Holleys of the world they will tell you Walsh had been telling that lie for years - off the record of course.

Tomase wrote a shoddy piece of journalism but he couldn't have gotten it printed without approval from a long list of superiors.

At the end of the day, the Herald's management made the decision to run a story based on the off the record words of a shaky source they could not verify with anyone else. They were spooked by the other stories that their award winning story they had been trying to get for months was about to be written by the Times or ESPN.

 

[bresna]

If you search the archives here, you'll find a thread where I heard Tomase talk about what happened on the radio with Loren & Wally on 105.7 FM. In the talk, he says that they had a source that they felt comfortable with. Tomase sounded like he was just as surprised he got a 2nd source as anyone else. He has never revealed that source which I imagine is because he's still a writer and that would be the ultimate no-no as a writer.

I've never been happy that Tomase wrote this when he did. However, I've never blamed him for it. The blame lays squarely on the Times & ESPN, who pulled this non-story off the back burner just to mess with our Super Bowl. Tomase was the only Boston-area journalist to take their bait.

 

[Rob0729]

He made up that there was evidence


Well, every one of your posts in this thread sounds extemely defensive.


Irrational? On the eve of the SB he made up a story that there was proof that the miraculous win in SB XXXVI was done by cheating and that the way the PAtriots operate is to sneak around and spy on the other teams practices. That is 100x more damaging than the actual Spygate BS.
Specter wouldn't let it die, but at least he didn't flat out lie in order to try to bring negative attention to the PAtriots and create a distraction the night before the game.



And you aren't defending him? You have no way of knowing that. He lied, how can you claim he has integrity?



I don't know how you get that.


No one else lied and said there was a tape. You are trying to say what he did was OK because someone else somewhere broached the topic. That doesnt excuse his unprofessional, scummy actions.

First, you are way off base claiming Tomase made up evidence and lied. There is absolutely no evidence of that. I truly believe that he believed the story to be true and had a source who was in position to know the truth. His crime was not spending the time and effort to verify the truth and get independent confirmation (I assume he used the Matt Walsh revelation as that independent confirmation). The Rams' walkthrough story was not made up by Tomase and Tom Curran reported the rumor on his blog months before and Michael Holley spoke of the rumor around the same time as Curran did.

Second, Specter's motives were pretty obvious. He wanted revenge for the Pats stealing the Eagles' Super Bowl win. It is far too much of a coincidence that he would decide the Thursday before the Super Bowl to contact Greg Bishop of the Times. As for Bishop, he acted as Specter's Press Secretary the entire Matt Walsh saga. I don't know for sure they did it on purpose to sink the Pats' Super Bowl chances, but it looks pretty obvious. But then again, you are claiming Tomase lied and fabricated evidence without a shread of evidence and with evidence to the contrary.

Third, I am not defending Tomase, at least not trying to make him an innocent. I have said repeatly that he was a villian in this whole mess. All I am doing is countering this effort to make Tomase into some kind of bin Laden. You and others are making up crimes that he didn't committ. Tomase didn't make up the Rams' walkthrough story. That rumor has been around for years. He never claimed there was a tape that still existed although he did assume that that might be the evidence Walsh claimed to have.

Tomase is guilty of bad journalism and a rush to get the story out without verifying and weighing the consequences especially what it would do to Belichick and the Patriots if he laid this accusation on them and his source ends up not being right. That is inexcusable, but again his crime was a crime of stupid wreckless opportunism. You and others want to make it sound like he manufactured this story to sink Belichick and elevate his career. Only the elevate his career part is correct.

 

[Ring 6]

First, you are way off base claiming Tomase made up evidence and lied. There is absolutely no evidence of that. I truly believe that he believed the story to be true and had a source who was in position to know the truth. His crime was not spending the time and effort to verify the truth and get independent confirmation (I assume he used the Matt Walsh revelation as that independent confirmation). The Rams' walkthrough story was not made up by Tomase and Tom Curran reported the rumor on his blog months before and Michael Holley spoke of the rumor around the same time as Curran did.

Second, Specter's motives were pretty obvious. He wanted revenge for the Pats stealing the Eagles' Super Bowl win. It is far too much of a coincidence that he would decide the Thursday before the Super Bowl to contact Greg Bishop of the Times. As for Bishop, he acted as Specter's Press Secretary the entire Matt Walsh saga. I don't know for sure they did it on purpose to sink the Pats' Super Bowl chances, but it looks pretty obvious. But then again, you are claiming Tomase lied and fabricated evidence without a shread of evidence and with evidence to the contrary.

Third, I am not defending Tomase, at least not trying to make him an innocent. I have said repeatly that he was a villian in this whole mess. All I am doing is countering this effort to make Tomase into some kind of bin Laden. You and others are making up crimes that he didn't committ. Tomase didn't make up the Rams' walkthrough story. That rumor has been around for years. He never claimed there was a tape that still existed although he did assume that that might be the evidence Walsh claimed to have.

Tomase is guilty of bad journalism and a rush to get the story out without verifying and weighing the consequences especially what it would do to Belichick and the Patriots if he laid this accusation on them and his source ends up not being right. That is inexcusable, but again his crime was a crime of stupid wreckless opportunism. You and others want to make it sound like he manufactured this story to sink Belichick and elevate his career. Only the elevate his career part is correct.

You have already decided what you want to think on this, and it is pointless to respond so you can keep typing the same comments defending Tomase. I do not know why you are so proTomas, but I dont really care.

 

[Rob0729]

You have already decided what you want to think on this, and it is pointless to respond so you can keep typing the same comments defending Tomase. I do not know why you are so proTomas, but I dont really care.

Well if you are going to make innacurate statements like Tomase lied about the story and he made it up when the story was around long before he was covering the Patriots, maybe you should stop responding. Sorry, I am not pro Tomase. I am just not going to turn him into a monster and make up things about him just because I don't like him. I am trying to be objective about the guy. What he did was wrong, but he didn't lie or make up a story especially since most of us who were paying attention already knew about the rumor back in September of 2007.

 

[RayClay]

Well if you are going to make innacurate statements like Tomase lied about the story and he made it up when the story was around long before he was covering the Patriots, maybe you should stop responding. Sorry, I am not pro Tomase. I am just not going to turn him into a monster and make up things about him just because I don't like him. I am trying to be objective about the guy. What he did was wrong, but he didn't lie or make up a story especially since most of us who were paying attention already knew about the rumor back in September of 2007.

So, the team's beat writer can publish any unsubstantiated rumor at any time because it isn't his lie, it's someone else's?

 

[40yrpatsfan]

Well if you are going to make innacurate statements like Tomase lied about the story and he made it up when the story was around long before he was covering the Patriots, maybe you should stop responding. Sorry, I am not pro Tomase. I am just not going to turn him into a monster and make up things about him just because I don't like him. I am trying to be objective about the guy. What he did was wrong, but he didn't lie or make up a story especially since most of us who were paying attention already knew about the rumor back in September of 2007.

You make it sound like the cat was already out of the bag regarding the taping of the Rams practice prior to the Tomase article, and that there was already a 5 alarm fire going on about it. So untrue. There were only a couple of internet hacks talking about Matt Walsh in general (plus senile Eagles fan Arlen Specter), which the whole world interpreted to be more about sideline taping, and which the whole world had already dismissed as not too relevant to the Pats success. In the days leading up to the SB, there were ZERO stories about a Rams taping.

Tomase broke a home town story about the most blatant example of cheating there ever could be. Period, end of story. And it was totally 100% false. It was a whole new area of attack on the Patriots, and a million times more damaging than anything prior. It was indefensible and a main contributor to the Pats mediocre performance against the Giants.

What you're smoking I have no idea. Must be good stuff though.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

You have already decided what you want to think on this, and it is pointless to respond so you can keep typing the same comments defending Tomase. I do not know why you are so proTomas, but I dont really care.

While I don't agree with rob, I think he's not saying he's pro-Tomase. He's just more anti-Specter/Bishop...to each his own (though he did use alot of energy trying to make me finally realize that point). I'm not fans of any of them, but Tomase is definitely a big time villian in all of this. He may not have intentionally been trying to take down the Patriots, but it's like a person who fires a gun and the bullet misses it's target...you still bear the responsibility for what it hits (i.e like a person in a drive by trying to shoot a gang member but hits a kid...I have no sympathy).

My view:
"When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane."

 

[flasox27]

The fat sack of sh-t was trying to make a name for himself as a non-homer but lacked the journalistic integrity to verify the facts. As a result he is unfit to write for an respectable newspaper. He should be writing for the National Enquirer where he can quote Walsh as taping Elvis and Bigfoot in a pie eating contest.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Well if you are going to make innacurate statements like Tomase lied about the story and he made it up when the story was around long before he was covering the Patriots, maybe you should stop responding. Sorry, I am not pro Tomase. I am just not going to turn him into a monster and make up things about him just because I don't like him. I am trying to be objective about the guy. What he did was wrong, but he didn't lie or make up a story especially since most of us who were paying attention already knew about the rumor back in September of 2007.

What Tomass did was take an unsubstantiated rumor floating around without any real credibility and turn it into a big story by using his byline at one of the two NEP "Hometown Papers" to change it from rumor to fact on Super Bowl weekend without substantiating the story or checking the facts.

The fact that the rumor was out there is virtually irrelevant; what matters is that Tomass had the standing and credibility to elevate it from rumor to fact in the eyes of haters and millions of observers; he did so without regard to establishing the truth. That is journalistic misconduct and, were it not for our generous laws, libelous.

You can write another dozen posts trying to put lipstick on that pig but it still oinks!

 

[Joker]

If I could I would hit thanks another ten times on the preceding post.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

If I could I would hit thanks another ten times on the preceding post.

Awww, shucks...thanks....

 

[Joker]

I take it you live here at ground zero within driving distance of Foxboro.So do I. For me and mine what Tomase did was so wrong,his timing so malicious, that it burned our hearts to the core.

I think, though I'm not sure, that Rob lives in another region and therefore has a perspective that differs. I can respect that. I don't agree with it but he's entitled to his viewpoint.

I view Toomassive as a combination of Benedict Arnold/Judas and I'll carry that to the grave.