Pats Fans For Truth Fact Sheet (collect facts) [merged]

[jmt57]

Not sure if you saw this article yet. It is from Peter King at SI, and he speaks about the hypocrisy of the NFL in selective enforcement of their rules. Specifically, the rule about tampering with soon to be free agents is ignored, even though a memo was sent out to all teams (sound familiar?)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/peter_king/03/02/cleveland/3.html


I think I wish the NFL would, once and for all, get serious about enforcing tampering. I bring to your attention a Jan. 31 memo from the league that I obtained, reminding teams to lay off players from other teams until the opening of the free-agency period, which began Friday at 12:01 a.m. ET.

The memo read, in part: "You are specifically reminded that any contact -- direct or indirect -- by one club with players under contract to another club, about potential future employment, is not permitted. Such contacts could potentially interfere with the employer-employee relationship of the second club. Further, any public or private statement of interest, qualified or unqualified, in another club's player to the player's agent or representative, or to the news media, is a violation of the Anti-Tampering Policy.

"These rules are in effect at all times that a player remains under contract; the anticipated expiration of a player contract at the beginning of the upcoming League year (that is, a player's expectation that he will soon become a free agent) does not excuse impermissible contact prior to such contract expiration.''

And so I see all kinds of agents talking to teams at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. I see teams agreeing to terms with players as they do every year in the first hour of free agency (as Miami did with a guard, Justin Smiley of the 49ers). And, by the way, how did I know the Eagles would be the leaders in the clubhouse for Asante, including details about the money in the deal, nine days ago?

We've got to stop pretending this doesn't exist, and the league has to stop selectively enforcing some rules and not others. If there's an anti-tampering rule, the NFL must enforce it the way it enforces other rules.

 

[BPF]

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/10683571

 

[PatsFanInVa]

BPF, Jimke, thanks for the links - they have been pasted into the rolling "source" document, and quotes from one will probably make it into one of our first 4-5 fact sheets.

I can't tell you guys how useful it is to have the fans get together and contribute these kinds of raw material. We're all doing this in off time, and we couldn't put together the documents without this help!

(It's especially noteworthy you guys kept combing the stories while all the Randy angst was afoot.)

Thanks again,

PFnV

 

[neuronet]

What folks out here are trying to do is admirable, but it is what the Krafts should have paid a million or so of their billion dollars to do from the very beginning. i sincerely believe that their strategy let down the players, the coaches and the fans .

Yes!! Well put.

Incidentally, fantastic thread, guys! Keep it up! If the media doesn't listen to this stuff, my friends will have to!

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Once we've got a page up, you (and your friends) will be the first to know

PFnV

 

[upstater1]

Wow, check this one out:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/030408dnspocowlishaw.29617fc.html

That, of course, did nothing to taint this season but it did cast suspicions about their past championships. Then came the week of the Super Bowl, when reports surfaced that Walsh, their former video assistant, claimed to have taped the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough practice prior to the Patriots' first Super Bowl victory.

Until the NFL finally gets to speak with Walsh, we don't know how much validity to give to his story. There appeared to be holes in it, for sure. For one, he claimed to ride a media bus from the Superdome back to the hotel.

There aren't any media buses going to teams' walkthroughs at Super Bowls.

 

[PAPatsjunkie]

Wow, check this one out:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/030408dnspocowlishaw.29617fc.html

Now I'm confused.. when did Matt Walsh claim that he taped the walk-through? Wasn't that an error by the Associated Press that they later recanted? If so where did the tidbit about the media bus come from?

 

[upstater1]

Now I'm confused.. when did Matt Walsh claim that he taped the walk-through? Wasn't that an error by the Associated Press that they later recanted? If so where did the tidbit about the media bus come from?

Obviously, Walsh is talking. He's been telling people this story for awhile. Everyone knows the story.

 

[BPF]

KSDK in St. Louis interviewed Maroney after he visited Clayton High School on Monday and presented a check to the school for winning his foundation's Christmas toy drive.

The interviewer asked him about spygate, nice responses by Lomo.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=141485

From the interview:

Felts: "You weren't with the Patriots when they faced the Rams in the Super Bowl, but there was speculation that the Patriots had taped the Rams' walkthrough before that Super Bowl. When that news came out, did you guys know about it? Because there was speculation that maybe it somehow affected you guys before you played in the Super Bowl."
Maroney: "No, I [hadn't] heard about it till you just told me. I hadn't really heard about that … things really don't get around to us … we don't pay attention to a lot of things, so before you told me, I would have never known that. So it just goes to show you how some stuff that everybody wants us to know, or expects that we knew about, we really don't know about."
Felts: "How do you think it would affect you, as a player, if you thought an opponent had gotten tape on you?"
Maroney: "I was always taught … my high school coach, we always ran the same play over and over, and he was like, 'They know we're going to run it. We know we're going to run it. Execute!' So that's one of those things – execute! If you execute your plays, execute your block, no matter if the team knows what you're going to do or not, if you execute your assignment you should prevail, you should win. And I think if they knew we were doing it, it would be fun for me because now you know what I'm going to do and you still can't stop it. So you know, it's one of those things that if I thought a player was cheating, I'd probably laugh it off and work that much harder to win."

 

[BPF]

What to make of this??

www.profootballtalk.com

POSTED 9:32 p.m. EST, March 4, 2008

YAHOO! CAVES TO COACH KEVLAR

Broncos coach Mike Shanahan can no longer deny it. He is, we believe, a closet member of PFT Planet.

How do we know this? On September 13, 2007, Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reported that Shanahan "had been hiring spies to videotape the Chargers practices."

But from September through October, November, December, and January, Shanahan didn't react.

On February 23, we wrote an item that mentioned the Cole article. And "in recent days" Shanahan has demanded a retraction and apology from Yahoo! via letters from his lawyer, Harvey Steinberg.

Coincidentally, Harvey Steinberg also represented Broncos running back Travis Henry in his 2007 battle with the league over drug testing.

Steinberg seems to be setting the stage for a defamation lawsuit against Yahoo!, by claiming that Cole's alleged failure to contact Shanahan for comment constitutes "actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth," either of which is a necessary ingredient in a claim for defamation brought by a public figure.

Apparently, Yahoo! has taken notice. The article no longer contains reference to the allegations in question, and the following paragraph appears at the top of the item:

"Editors' note: We have eliminated a paragraph in this story that, upon review, does not meet the editorial standards of Yahoo! Sports. We took immediate action to eliminate the content from our site as soon as we became aware of this matter."

The prompt retraction by Yahoo! might be enough to placate Shanahan. But if he chooses to file suit, he needs to realize that his coaching life would be an open book, and that Yahoo!'s lawyers would engage in aggressive discovery about anything and everything of an allegedly questionable nature that Shanahan might have ever done. We're not saying that he's ever done anything questionable or otherwise (we don't yet have the budget for a team of lawyers), but if he were to sue Yahoo!, the Internet giant would be entitled to dig into every nook and cranny of Shanahan's life in order to determine whether the allegation is true and/or whether Shanahan has engaged in other activities that might have done equal or greater damage to his reputation.

Our guess is that the matter is over. And, frankly, the problem might never had popped up if we hadn't mentioned the five-month-old article a week or so ago.

 

[JoeSixPat]

What to make of this??

www.profootballtalk.com

There's a lot ot make of this... Pats1 and I - and I'm sure others - have had great success in seeing the information we send to Floiro and other media members work their way into articles in an effort to broadcast these issues to the football world

These old links don't just "show up" in Florio's articles and others by chance - and while some people might mock us we ARE definately having an effect.

So great job on all who have contributed to the research - keep up the good work!

 

[upstater1]

This is what I make of this: Jason Cole got the info from a source in the NFL that he's protecting. Yahoo is unwilling to back him because Yahoo is an incredibly cruddy media organization that deserves to have their stock in the tank.

 

[BPF]

This is what I make of this: Jason Cole got the info from a source in the NFL that he's protecting. Yahoo is unwilling to back him because Yahoo is an incredibly cruddy media organization that deserves to have their stock in the tank.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/nfl/03/05/yahoo.spying.ap/index.html

Greg Aiello, the NFL's spokesman, also called the article inaccurate.

"We are not aware of any such video and no one in our office has seen the video," Aiello said in an e-mail.

The NFL has denied they are aware of any such video, just like they did with the bs story of Rams walkthrough.

 

[upstater1]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/nfl/03/05/yahoo.spying.ap/index.html



The NFL has denied they are aware of any such video, just like they did with the bs story of Rams walkthrough.

Again, no one in our office, he says.

Of course, the original accusation was from the 1990s. So, is anyone from Tagliabue's 1990's regime still working for Goodell?

 

[BPF]

Again, no one in our office, he says.

Of course, the original accusation was from the 1990s. So, is anyone from Tagliabue's 1990's regime still working for Goodell?

Yeah, caught that.

 

[JoeSixPat]

This is what I make of this: Jason Cole got the info from a source in the NFL that he's protecting. Yahoo is unwilling to back him because Yahoo is an incredibly cruddy media organization that deserves to have their stock in the tank.

And of course, how many recent stories about Spygate should have the same disclaimer? Pretty much any story with Matt Walsh's name in it should have the same statement, don't you think?


"Editors' note: We have eliminated a paragraph in this story that, upon review, does not meet the editorial standards of _________. We took immediate action to eliminate the content from our site as soon as we became aware of this matter."

 

[upstater1]

And of course, how many recent stories about Spygate should have the same disclaimer? Pretty much any story with Matt Walsh's name in it should have the same statement, don't you think?


"Editors' note: We have eliminated a paragraph in this story that, upon review, does not meet the editorial standards of _________. We took immediate action to eliminate the content from our site as soon as we became aware of this matter."

Yup, just more hypocrisy.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Yup, just more hypocrisy.

Hmmm - seeing that Yahoo Sports has now established this precedent, perhaps we should join together to petition the Herald Sports editor to do the same thing with any Matt Walsh stories.

After all - is it their editorial standards to let those allegations stand in print (or rather on the web) when he's provided absolutely no proof whatsoever?

If Walsh provides evidence then they can re-establish their articles - but until then, the question remains... does the Herald have the same editorial integrity that Yahoo Sports of all things, does?

 

[PAPatsjunkie]

I emailed Florio about this, here's what he said:

Hi Mike,

Great job as always on the site. I just wanted to comment on the article of Jason Cole's that had the "questionable" paragraph removed. Don't you find it interesting that Cole has anonymous source that told him Shanahan was spying on Chargers practices, Shanahan denies it, and it is removed... yet The Boston Herald has an anonymous source that the Patriots filmed the Rams walk through, Belichick denies it, and nothing happens? I guess the only thing missing is the Patriots threatening legal action, which they really could do.

planning to talk about it

Hmmm - seeing that Yahoo Sports has now established this precedent, perhaps we should join together to petition the Herald Sports editor to do the same thing with any Matt Walsh stories.

After all - is it their editorial standards to let those allegations stand in print (or rather on the web) when he's provided absolutely no proof whatsoever?

If Walsh provides evidence then they can re-establish their articles - but until then, the question remains... does the Herald have the same editorial integrity that Yahoo Sports of all things, does?

 

[upstater1]

Hmmm - seeing that Yahoo Sports has now established this precedent, perhaps we should join together to petition the Herald Sports editor to do the same thing with any Matt Walsh stories.

After all - is it their editorial standards to let those allegations stand in print (or rather on the web) when he's provided absolutely no proof whatsoever?

If Walsh provides evidence then they can re-establish their articles - but until then, the question remains... does the Herald have the same editorial integrity that Yahoo Sports of all things, does?

I don't agree with this. Unattributed quotes like that are standard for newspapers and journalists. We even had a member of the President's staff indicted this year for an incident in which reporter's were forced to name him as the source.

My problem with the Herald is that they deliberately chose to run with a story from a source that everyone knows is questionable, and they ran with it the day before the Super Bowl. So, the Herald standard in this case is in line with journalistic practices, but the actual case in specific makes Tomase look like a poor to pathetic reporter. He is protecting Walsh, a proven liar, and buy doing it on the day before the Super Bowl, he spat in the face of every Patriot fan. That's the difference right there. If the story came out f a newspaper in Oregon, we wouldn't still be so angry about it.

I ragged on Yahoo for caving so quickly. That's not good for the morale of the reporters. In my view, the Herald would not cave like that since they are still trying to portray themselves as a "reporting" outfit. Yahoo apparently doesn't care.