JoeSixPat
Pro Bowl Player
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Two interesting items on PFT - sorry if this has been posted already but I didn't see it.
POSTED 10:47 p.m. EST, February 9, 2008
WALSH WON'T TALK
Little more than a week after his initial comments sent shock waves throughout the NFL, former Patriots video employee Matt Walsh is suddenly saying nothing.
Hounded by an NFL media corps that coincidentally in spending the week in the distant state where Walsh now resides, the man who might (or might not) have used a camera at the Rams' final walk-through practice before Super Bowl XXXVI is telling the press little more than "Aloha."
Recently, Walsh answered a string of questions from an Associated Press reporter by declining to answer them. Politely, but definitively.
The inescapable conclusion? Walsh has a lawyer, and Walsh is listening to his lawyer.
Still, if the NFL is going to indemnify Walsh against any potential liability that might apply to potential violations of his confidentiality agreement with the Pats, Walsh eventually needs to tell his story to a camera, for all to hear. Whatever he knows, or whatever he thinks he knows, needs to be known by anyone who wants to know it.
POSTED 11:38 a.m. EST, February 8, 2008
COULD SPYGATE II SNARE A TUNA?
Our own MDS (yeah, AOL, we're claiming him) makes an astute observation regarding the still-unfolding drama known in these parts as Spygate II.
If (and we know that's a big "if") it's ultimately proven that the Pats spied on the Rams' final walk-through practice prior to Super Bowl XXXVI, who besides New England coach Bill Belichick will have both legs knee deep in doo-doo?
As MDS points out, Jets coach Eric Mangini, Browns coach Romeo Crennel, and Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Ryan were all on Belichick's staff at the time (and they worked for the Patriots, too -- man, we can never get enough of that adolescent humor). To the extent that the Pats were using knowledge of plays that the Rams would run from specific formations, those three defensive coaches might have known something about it.
But let's take this a step farther. As the rumor in NFL circles goes (and it's only a rumor), Belichick warned NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell last year that if the Spygate issue ever comes up again Belichick will tell all that he knows about cheating in pro football. Even if that rumor isn't true, it's hard to imagine that any cheating (if it's happening) started in New England at the beginning of the current decade.
If he did it, Belichick likely learned it from someone else. And one of those potential someones is now the V.P. of football operations in Miami.
Belichick was Bill Parcells' defensive coordinator for two Super Bowl wins with the Giants, and later worked for him again with the Jets. Ironically, Belichick was the Steve Spagnuolo 17 years ago of a Giants team that somehow topped an AFC East team with a high-octane offense.
Look, we're not saying what will, would, or should happen here. But if Belichick gets called to the principal's office again, this time he might sing (if, of course, he has anything to sing about -- or, as the more fastidious in the crowd would say, about which to sing). And if/when he does, we can't only look at the guys who worked for him; we also need to look at the guys for whom he once worked.
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