Walsh's attorney: Walsh has tapes

[WTE]

You don't collect when you're fired either, at least for wrongdoing.

J D Sal

I believe I read that Pioli fired him for seeking job opportunities at other clubs. Walsh obviously was hoping he could move beyond the Audio-Visual Department and sought those opportunities elsewhere.

I would find it unlikely the Patriots would challenge his UC because he made a few phone calls to other clubs.

My point was, Walsh was fired but told everyone he quit.

He has a history of lying and that will all come out if he continues to pursue this.

 

[PatriotsReign]

Re: PFT: Walsh does indeed have tapes!

I disagree. If he has tapes and was a Patriots employee, the assumption will be he did it on behalf of the Patriots. I don't care what they say, no one will believe otherwise. He doesn't have to prove ****. Simply producing the tapes, people will believe the Patriots did it.

J D Sal

I still say someone from the Rams organization could have given Walsh a tape 3 days ago...one of their staff could have made a copy. I imagine teams film their own walk-through's all the time.

All of a sudden...he has the tapes!!??? No, I don't think so....

 

[richpats]

You can't just go around saying anything you please without paying the consequences.

You are living proof that people CAN do that.

 

[QuickOutGo]

Re: PFT: Walsh does indeed have tapes!

True. Anyone telling themselves any different are just fooling themselves. In the court of public opinion, the most important court imo, they will believe Walsh. This isn't the end either, IF TRUE. There are others out there or with the Pats right now that will eventually tell more, IF TRUE. Imagine if this were another team, like the Jets, how would you be reacting?

pao

I disagree. In the court of public opinion, Belichick is already guilty of taping the Rams walkthrough. I've read a bunch of storied about this recently. A lot of them begin with "the Boston Herald reported that the Patriots taped the Rams walkthrough." No "allegedly" or anything like that. Simply reported as fact.

In my mind, the only things that are important here are:

a) is there a tape?
b) if so, does Goodell believe the Pats authorized it?

If the answer to both is yes, the Pats are screwed and Belichick is finished. If the answer to either is no, then nothing changes, the punishment has already been meted out. No amount of public outcry will change that.

 

[JDSal45]

I believe I read that Pioli fired him for seeking job opportunities at other clubs. Walsh obviously was hoping he could move beyond the Audio-Visual Department and sought those opportunities elsewhere.

I would find it unlikely the Patriots would challenge his UC because he made a few phone calls to other clubs.

My point was, Walsh was fired but told everyone he quit.

He has a history of lying and that will all come out if he continues to pursue this.

I have heard a whole ****load of rumors. Part of the problem is the Patriots have said next to nothing. Yeah, they denied it. And then have been eerily quiet as rumor after rumor hurts their franchise. And who did Walsh tell he quit to? I haven't seen a source for that.

It'd be nice if they'd defend themselves.

J D Sal

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Re: PFT: Walsh does indeed have tapes!

True. Anyone telling themselves any different are just fooling themselves. In the court of public opinion, the most important court imo, they will believe Walsh. This isn't the end either, IF TRUE. There are others out there or with the Pats right now that will eventually tell more, IF TRUE. Imagine if this were another team, like the Jets, how would you be reacting?

pao

And that "if true" is the key point. It seems fairly obvious that there's something really fishy going on here. (Why exactly isn't the NFL's offer of indemnity good enough? Why not come out and say this in September?) It's also "interesting" that he claims the information is "damaging" not just to the Patriots, but to the NFL as well.

Here's a question, though--where could he have possibly stood where he would (A) avoid detection while (B) actually being able to record the walkthrough? I mean, if he was anywhere you could be seen on the field, don't you think someone would have seen him at the time, and recognized that he didn't belong there?

 

[pao]

For the league's sake, Walsh better have nothing. PFT and other sources have said there is a rumor that is highly likely that if BB were made a sacrificial lamb in this farce, he would blow the perverbial whistle on everything he knows about cheating in the NFL and those who participated.

I hope this happens, if true. Don't like cheating no matter who does it. Follow the rules and may the best team win.

Personally, I believe this rumor and I would just LOVE to see BB step up and Blow up the league if they go after him in the witch hunt. I would cheer the man on every single step of the way!

"Witch hunt"? The NFL, if anything, has been trying to BURY this thing. Goodell is like Austin Powers, "Why won't you die? Why won't you die? Why won't you die?" It has been anything but a witch hunt and won't be one if more comes out. He'll investigate because he SHOULD investigate. It goes to the integrity of the game. If more than the Pats are doing it he should investigate EVERY SINGLE TEAM INVOLVED EVEN IF IT IS EVERY TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. Otherwise the NFL is nothing more than the WWF.

pao

 

[upstater1]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...bYF?slug=ap-mattwalsh-tapes&prov=ap&type=lgns

It doesn't give me much confidence when the NFL's own lawyer Levy has problems with the English language. Unless he's been misquoted, the NFL's lawyer just told us that Walsh will be truthful. Misplaced qualifier.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I have heard a whole ****load of rumors. Part of the problem is the Patriots have said next to nothing. Yeah, they denied it. And then have been eerily quiet as rumor after rumor hurts their franchise. And who did Walsh tell he quit to? I haven't seen a source for that.

It'd be nice if they'd defend themselves.

It's almost not worth it: people are going to believe what they want to believe, and all the Patriots' denials would do is keep the story in the news.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

It doesn't give me much confidence when the NFL's own lawyer Levy has problems with the English language. Unless he's been misquoted, the NFL's lawyer just told us that Walsh will be truthful. Misplaced qualifier.

Levy is Walsh's lawyer, not the NFL's. But take a closer look at what the NFL's spokesman said:

"But his demand to be released from all responsibility even if his comments are not truthful is unprecedented and unreasonable. The NFL and the Patriots have assured Mr. Walsh's lawyer that there will be no adverse consequences for his client if Mr. Walsh truthfully shares what he knows. Why does he need any more protection than that?"

Now that's interesting. . . .

 

[upstater1]

If he does have a tape, than we have seen the last game coached for the Patriots by Bill Belichik. Kraft will have no choice but to let him go as it will be the only way to separate the team from the cheating allegations. I don't like it, but it will happen. Very sad. I hope Walsh has nothing.

You're so wrong on this.

It's not going to happen.

Too much money involved. Kraft is not going to shoot himself in the wallet because of this. Letting Belichick go is worth $100 million to Kraft, if not more. do the math. High ticket prices. Winning team. Helps pay off the huge debt Kraft has racked up. Your team is worth as much as the revenue it brings in, not the profit, because in the future, that revenue will have paid off the debt.

He's not going to risk $100 million or more.

 

[upstater1]

Assuming for the sake of argument Belichick ordered a pervasive cheating endeavor, do you honestly believe, with all the compartmentalized security (people in the Pats organization know their jobs but not the jobs of other people or groups in the organization) he would actually leave this Kaiser Sose character in a position to expose the illegal endeavor? Only if they are complete morons. Belichick may be arrogant (believe what you want about the videotaping violation-he liked doing things his way and thought the rule was stupid-he was obvious, not sneaky, in his videotaping), but he is not stupid.

The court of public opinion will never believe Belichick, not if he hooks himself to a polygraph, not if he says he has nothing to confess before being burned at the stake. Could a garden variety idiot like Walsh, a low level, video media guy who would be aware of the Rams practice schedule by virtue of media bulletins, unilaterally tape that practice in an effort to enhance his position with the organization? Uh, yeah. Don't forget the fact that the Pats played the Rams well (24-17) during the season, so where is the motivation to engage in something Belichik clearly could get caught and embarrassed doing? This ploy is not the sidelines stuff, it is the stuff that kills a team's desire to win and creates scandal right before the Superbowl. It tells a team the coach believes the team is outmatched and cannot honestly win the game. That would be stupid.

Walsh has nothing. If the Pats thought he had videos, he would likely be sued long ago for theft of team property and violation of his employment agreement. If Walsh was able to sneak these smoking gun videos out, there would be no chain of custody implicating him and he would have leaked them to the media for a big payday (and given the love of the mediots for the Pats, somebody would have paid that tab). Something about Walsh does not scream love of the NFL and its competitive balance. This guy is therefore the NFL's equivalent of Geraldo Rivera's Al Capone vault episode - a huge amount of wasted attention that will result in absolutely nothing but lost time.

His lawyer says he has tapes.

Of something.

 

[upstater1]

Bold statements are starting to leak out of Walsh's camp if you ask me.
Strange that he has tapes in his possession from his time with the Patriots, and they haven't surfaced until now.

I agree, that if he has anything that looks bad on the Pats, they will be deemed guilty in the court of public opinion.
This will force Goodell to either place all blame on the Pats and deny that he knew anything about it, or it will force the league to stand together and acknowledge that these practices were known and likely widespread.

Fwiw, was it against the rules to tape practices in 2002? I'm just saying, that if it wasn't clear in the rules, then by all means taping practices is fair game, imho.

You can't tape practices. I can't imagine that even a homer would ever argue that.

We might argue about the benefits of taping particular practices (i.e. if the Pats taped the walkthrough, it didn't help them any during the game) but the whole concept of practicing would become ridiculous if teams knew ahead of time what you were going to do.

Stealing signals which are relayed out in the open is a different story. That's just gamesmanship. You can easily do it with your eyes.

 

[upstater1]

This idea of yours is reaching but never the less it is interesting.

This would constitute fraud and slander and the Rams would never ever take a chance like that, especially with a character like Walsh.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

This is now the third thread that I recall just since yesterday that was spawned by the same article. The insufficient indemnification article. Just sayin'...So again, nothing new other that his lawyer now appears to claim there are at least some tapes in his clients posession. He does not say what any of them entail.

If they are tapes of opposing coaches defensive signals, they are worthless for anything other than **** stirring since Goodell has already levied his penalty for that offense dating back to 2000. The team gave him whatever tapes still existed, and that was only of the last 6 games taped, but they also gave him ALL notes compiled on coaches defensive signals which were also destroyed because they may or may not have been compiled based on taping. Belichick told him he had interpreted the rule to allow him to do this as long as the information was not used in game in real time, and he had believed this and been acting accordingly since he arrived here. He stipulated that the league was given all material related to such taping that was IN THE PATRIOTS POSESSION. End of discussion.

Now, if Walsh actually has a tape of the Rams walkthrough that will be HUGE news. However, it still won't necessarily lead to any additional penalties outside of the court of public opinion - where we are already dead men walking - unless Walsh can prove that he actually filmed rather than acquired the tape, the team was aware of his taping, either instructed him to tape or accepted a tape he made on his own initiative (which would beg the question how did he and not they end up with it) and utilized it.

Among his moronic ramblings on the subject yesterday, including the concept of simple indemnification for liars being a no brainer or the league having some means to compel someone's testimony, Felger touched on the subject of a culture existing in the video department whereby someone would assume if they could get tape on something presumably of value they would elevate their value to the organization. Could be that is what he is hearing as a potential scenario from that other source (Tomasse's) who claimed to have heard of the existence of a tape at some point. Is an employer responsible when an employee does something at best unseemly in hopes of currying favor with his employer? I don't know. If he killed someone because he thought his employer would just as soon not have to compete with that person, would the employer be culpable or would there have to be proof he specifically suggested or requested that person be eliminated...

This guy reportedly claimed he had information that would be damaging to the league as well as the team. Perhaps he was taping for Pete Carroll or even Tuna since his employment dated back to 1996 (published reports claim he attended two Superbowls while with the Patriots and received a ring for XXXVIII - he was gone in January 2003, so the other Superbowl would have been on Tuna's watch...). And that might force the league to deal with the concept that everybody really did do it. To date the only folks to come out and admit doing it (as opposed to just supporting the everyone did it argument) are former HC's like Jimmy Johnson who is now beyond the reach of the league. Pete eventually wants back in and Tuna is back in.

The defensive game plan that derailed Marshall and Kurt's beloved Rams was installed 5 days before that walkthrough - which included limited red zone offense they never had the ability to employ until the 4th quarter, successfully I might add. Everything that gets reported on this story generates a new wave of hysteria that on further examimation turns out to be relatively unwarrranted. Had Goodell leaked the tape with the coach waving at the camera prior to imposing sentence...just sayin'.

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

You can't tape practices. I can't imagine that even a homer would ever argue that.

We might argue about the benefits of taping particular practices (i.e. if the Pats taped the walkthrough, it didn't help them any during the game) but the whole concept of practicing would become ridiculous if teams knew ahead of time what you were going to do.

Stealing signals which are relayed out in the open is a different story. That's just gamesmanship. You can easily do it with your eyes.

That is why this thing is black and white, if there is a practice tape, there are going to be more questions.. If there is not end of story, and time to move on.. But you cant tape a practice, and you cant argue that well they did not get anything out of it.. It does not matter, you cant tape a practice..

 

[pao]

Re: PFT: Walsh does indeed have tapes!

I disagree. In the court of public opinion, Belichick is already guilty of taping the Rams walkthrough. I've read a bunch of storied about this recently. A lot of them begin with "the Boston Herald reported that the Patriots taped the Rams walkthrough." No "allegedly" or anything like that. Simply reported as fact.

In my mind, the only things that are important here are:

a) is there a tape?
b) if so, does Goodell believe the Pats authorized it?

If the answer to both is yes, the Pats are screwed and Belichick is finished. If the answer to either is no, then nothing changes, the punishment has already been meted out. No amount of public outcry will change that.

IMO only "a" is important. Public opinioin will be far harsher if true, even if Goodell doesn't believe the Pats authorized it. Additionally I believe if Walsh has one tape he probably has others AND there are other people that will come out now or in the future with more info. REmember my caveat though, IF TRUE. I'm not sure what Walsh is putting out there is even true. We may NEVER know. The NFL is certainly not trying very hard to find out.

pao

 

[upstater1]

Levy is Walsh's lawyer, not the NFL's. But take a closer look at what the NFL's spokesman said:



Now that's interesting. . . .

My bad, I thought Levy was an NFL guy.

On the other hand, Levy and Aiello's statements contradict each other. Levy says he made an offer in which Walsh is idemnified ONLY if he's truthful. Aiello calims that Levy asked for a lot more than that, idemnification even if he's lying.

One of these two guys is lying.

I'm betting it's Levy. A lying lawyer for a lying client.

 

[WTE]

And who did Walsh tell he quit to? I haven't seen a source for that.

J D Sal

A former friend of Walsh's said that in the comments section of barstoolsports.com. Here's what she said:

I have known Matt Walsh personally - he married someone that I was friends with....no longer friends with her partly because once she met Matt she became an even bigger liar than she was before - his influence. He is abusive to his wife if that is any indication of the type of person he is Matt is one of the worst people I have ever met in my life - he doesnt know what truth is and he always looks out for himself. When he was fired from the Patriots he told all of us he quit. I always knew it was a lie because he was collecting unemployment...so the patriots must not have given him any kind of package when the fired him. Right before he got married he was emailing some stripper about how he wants to rub up against her and he was so stupid that he copied everyone in his address book including his soon to be wifes family and friends. He said that his email account was stolen by someone and that is who emailed the stripper. Hopefully all his lies will catch up with him this time
— Kellyt, Feb 07, 2008, 7:47pm

http://www.barstoolsports.com/randomthoughts/2008/02/02/who_would_you_rather_stab/

 

[upstater1]

That is why this thing is black and white, if there is a practice tape, there are going to be more questions.. If there is not end of story, and time to move on.. But you cant tape a practice, and you cant argue that well they did not get anything out of it.. It does not matter, you cant tape a practice..

Depends on who you are arguing with and about what. If someone wants to talk about the Rams game and how the Patriots played, I'll argue it. If someone wants to talk about breaking the rules or cheating, I won't bother. even some media members have pointed out that the walkthrough consisted only of red zone preparations.