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As of 19 minutes ago.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1094427&srvc=home&position=0
1st quarter of story:
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1094427&srvc=home&position=0
1st quarter of story:
Late in the 2006 season, I was having a casual conversation about the Patriots [team stats] when someone I trust threw out the following tidbit.
“I heard the Patriots filmed the Rams’ final walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI,” he said.
It was just a rumor, and certainly not actionable intelligence, as they say. He had heard it from a friend of a friend. I filed it away, and then forgot about it. Reporters hear stuff like that all the time.
Little did I know that comment would resurface from a much stronger source in the days after the Patriots had been caught filming the Jets’ defensive signals in September 2007.
I still needed more, and I tried to get it. Two days before the Super Bowl, I finally believed I had it nailed that the Pats had indeed taped that walkthrough. I didn’t know what happened to the tape or if it ever found its way to the coaching staff, but I felt I had the basic story, and even though I didn’t feel great about going the anonymous source route, this one was ready for print.
Turns out I could not have been more wrong. I regret it, and that’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.
There was no tape made of the walkthrough. Former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh confirmed this in his meetings this week with the league and Sen. Arlen Specter. An internal investigation by the Patriots reached the same conclusion.
Because I expect accountability of the people I cover, I must demand the same of myself. I owe that to both the readers of my stories and the subjects of my stories.
While I have no regrets over going to print the day before the Super Bowl, this is a story I simply could not afford to get wrong. And I did.
So what happened?
First and foremost, this is about a writer breaking one of the cardinal rules of journalism. I failed to keep challenging what I had been told.
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