Football Walsh Gives NFL 8 Tapes of Pats Cheating - Page 7

**noa** · 05-07-2008, 08:58 PM

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3386162

Ex-Pats employee Walsh sends NFL video of Pats' taping

After brokering a deal to protect himself, former New England Patriots employee Matt Walsh has finally turned over his evidence in the videotaping controversy.
The New York Times reported and the NFL confirmed on Wednesday that Walsh sent eight tapes to the league that show the Patriots recording the play-calling signals of five opponents in six games between 2000 and 2002.
Taping the signals of opposing teams is prohibited by league rules, and the Patriots were already fined $750,000 and docked a first-round draft choice in September for taping the New York Jets. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell left open the possibility that more penalties could be levied.
A Patriots employee from 1997-2003, Walsh reached an agreement to turn over the tapes in exchange for being indemnified from all future legal fees.
The New York Times obtained a list of the Walsh tapes, and the league confirmed that list, which says that the Patriots taped offensive and defensive coaches in regular-season games against the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers. The team also made video of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2002 AFC Championship Game.
Walsh's tapes do not include the video of the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough before the 2002 Super Bowl, as reported by the Boston Herald.
"Mr. Walsh has never claimed to have a tape of the walk-through," said Walsh's lawyer Michael Levy, according to the Times. "Mr. Walsh has never been the source of any of the media speculation about such a tape. Mr. Walsh was not the source for the Feb. 2 Boston Herald article."
Walsh has separate meetings scheduled on Tuesday with the commissioner and Senator Arlen Specter in which he is expected to provide additional details about the taping process.
Under his agreement with the league, Walsh can retain copies of his videotapes, but he cannot use them without the consent of the NFL.

Valiant · 05-08-2008, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnorix

I agree that the NFL was not very clear about what the Patriots had done -- at least not initially. They clearly wanted to seem firm on this issue, while burying it as a fast as possible, while giving out a minimum of details.

Nonetheless, it is now VERY clear that the Patriots had told Goodell waaay back when that they had taped every game since BB took over.

Repeat:

If that is the case on the bolded part.. You guys got off Scots free with only losing one 1st round pick and a fine.. Goodell did bail you out.. Every member of the staff should have been fired and banned from football, and the owner hit with a couple 100million dollar fines and prohibited from winning your division and playoffs for a couple years..

Hammock Parties · 05-08-2008, 06:59 PM

The Broncos are innocent, I tell you! INNOCENT!

**Dylan** · 05-08-2008, 09:16 PM

And the pressure is on ---

They don't give a eff ... They'll take you right down...

The New York Times

Sports of The Times

A Decade of Sins Deserves a Year Out
By HARVEY ARATON
Published: May 9, 2008

What an extensive video library Bill Belichick turns out to have produced. Eight more spy tapes sent to N.F.L. headquarters for Commissioner Roger Goodell’s viewing pleasure by a former student in the New England Patriots’ film noir studies program. Who knows how many more taped over or discarded over the last eight years?

Imagine the documentary possibilities for those talented folks at NFL Films, provided Goodell hasn’t already tossed the evidence into the fireplace with Tom Brady-like precision in a reprise of his mysterious spin cycle last fall.

Now that the “totality of conduct” for which Belichick was cited by Goodell has officially expanded to the length of his tenure in New England, shouldn’t he be further punished as a serial offender, a con man who not only broke the rules but established secretly taping opponents as standard operating procedure?

“If your wife cheats on you once, maybe you can forgive her, but if she cheats on you over the course of your entire marriage, that becomes unforgivable because she has flouted the rules, shown no respect for your marital contract,” said Sharon K. Stoll, director of the Center for Ethics at the University of Idaho and the author of “Sports Ethics: Applications for Fair Play.”

“That is apparently what happened in this case, a disregard for the organization and its rules and it’s a big mess that the N.F.L. has on its hands because this coach happens to be an American icon, a man who has had a book written about him by David Halberstam,” Stoll said. “The league has to stand up and make a strong statement because the last impression it wants to leave is that this particular coach was above those rules.”

Let me digress before explaining why I believe Belichick should now be barred from coaching the Patriots for one season, on top of the $750,000 in fines and the forfeiture of a first-round draft pick levied on him and the Patriots by Goodell last fall. (The money was the equivalent of a parking ticket and the draft pick not all that punitive in a year when the Patriots also had the 10th pick, from New Orleans.)

In another context, I would gladly concede that my proposed punishment falls well short of fitting the crime. Espionage in a sport played and promoted as recreational warfare would seem to be a natural extension of the competition. Defending one’s team against it would require nothing more complicated than what a third-base coach does, disguise his signals, in full view of an entire ballpark six or seven times a week.

But these are the rules set forth by the N.F.L., enforced by Goodell and reportedly reinforced in a league memo sent to the teams in 2006. To which Belichick at the very least responded by videotaping the Jets in the 2007 season opener that touched off the so-called Spygate affair, now encapsulated in its own online entry of the same name on Wikipedia.org.

In other words: embarrassment to the league in perpetuity, courtesy of its team of the decade and reigning coaching genius.

As rumors of additional tapes circulated before the Giants crushed the Patriots’ dream of a perfect season in Phoenix in February, including one of a filming of a St. Louis Rams pre-Super Bowl practice in 2002, Goodell made a point of saying, “It was not something that was done on a widespread basis.” Already you get the idea he wants everyone, especially the crusading Senator Arlen Specter, to believe there is nothing in the newly submitted tapes that Belichick hasn’t already detailed, as if all of this was already on the table for public inspection.

The good news for Goodell is that the Patriots’ former video coordinator Matt Walsh apparently did not have the aforementioned tape that would have tainted at least one of the three Super Bowls claimed by Belichick’s Pats. But the real news here is, again, the establishment of Belichick’s cheating then (2000 to 2002), now (last season) and if we may extrapolate based on reasonable cause, in all likelihood in between.

His explanation, his word, on this matter means as much as Roger Clemens’s on family values. “There obviously has been some lying going on — ‘oh, we did it once; we misinterpreted the rules, we didn’t mean to,’ ” said Stoll, the ethicist. As a liar and a cheater, what separates Belichick on the grand behavioral plane from your basic synthetic warrior who gets suspended four games when he produces a dirty test?

Augmented by logic, the facts suggest Belichick has been cheating for almost a decade. And since replacing Paul Tagliabue, Goodell has fashioned himself the zero-tolerance commissioner, cracking down hard on those — players, that is — who would compromise the runaway popularity of the league with antisocial acts. Shouldn’t that policy be applied even more stringently to those in control?

“They need to send a message here,” Stoll said.

One year out. Then let’s see Belichick dare spy again in 2009.

**KcMizzou** · 05-08-2008, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GOATSE

The Broncos are innocent, I tell you! INNOCENT!

I can't believe they didn't get so much as an un-sportsman like conduct penalty out of that.

Complete bullshit.

Ugly Duck · 05-08-2008, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

We did not cheat the salary cap nor did we break a written rule.

Oh... so the NFL slapped you down for no reason whatsoever. Kinda like they're slapping down Belicheat. Maybe we should all then just take the asterisks off of the Bronco & Belicheat SuperBowls...

ClevelandBronco · 05-09-2008, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ugly Duck

Oh... so the NFL slapped you down for no reason whatsoever. Kinda like they're slapping down Belicheat. Maybe we should all then just take the asterisks off of the Bronco & Belicheat SuperBowls...

Okay.

Uh, were they there?

Amnorix · 05-09-2008, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

We did not cheat the salary cap nor did we break a written rule. We made cash loans from players and paid them interest on the loans. It actually had nothing to do with the NFL. We used the money to pay for upfront costs on our new stadium. We didn't video tape the other team to make in game adjustments and cheat on the field.

Neither did the Patriots.

Amnorix · 05-09-2008, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

You mean like fraud? I agree that the local authorites should arrest Bellichek, but I have no problems with the committee investing the Patriots crimes since the local authorites have decided to ignore their duty.

You don't even know what the Patriots did, so perhaps you should save spouting off for something you do know about instead of your wild and incorrect guesses.

Amnorix · 05-09-2008, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valiant

If that is the case on the bolded part.. You guys got off Scots free with only losing one 1st round pick and a fine.. Goodell did bail you out.. Every member of the staff should have been fired and banned from football, and the owner hit with a couple 100million dollar fines and prohibited from winning your division and playoffs for a couple years..

I understand your hatred and jealousy. Let it all out.

**the Talking Can** · 05-09-2008, 06:07 AM

has there ever been such a thin skinned fan of a successful team?

hilarious....

Amnorix · 05-09-2008, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Talking Can

has there ever been such a thin skinned fan of a successful team?

hilarious....

I only argue when people have the facts wrong. Forgive me for trying to set them straight.

At least I don't argue that they did nothing wrong. That's the Donx fans.

Red Dawg · 05-09-2008, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnorix

*sigh*

Try reading the article. Try understanding that the Pats already admitted all thsi, that the NFL already knows it, and that there will be no further punishment. Try understanding that lots of people in the NFL "cheat" in lots of different ways, and that the NFL came in recently ('06 or whatever) and said "hey, stop it, we're serious", and the Patriots, presumably unlike everyone else and quite stupidly, didn't.

Did you read JJ's quote, even. Your beloved Chiefs used to do EXACTLY the same thing.

The Pats get caught and now everyone is a cheat. Whatever! Belicheat has been doing this for 8 years. He should be punished for 8 years worth not just a few games. Anyone that thinks he didn't video tape every year is just being stupid. The genius label can be officialliy removed. Genius's don't need Sony Handycams to win football games.

Garcia Bronco · 05-09-2008, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ugly Duck

Oh... so the NFL slapped you down for no reason whatsoever. Kinda like they're slapping down Belicheat. Maybe we should all then just take the asterisks off of the Bronco & Belicheat SuperBowls...

I explained why they fined us. But it didn't result to an on field advantage. Further more it was so Pat Bowlen could get his new stadium up and running. What we have here is a coach deliberately cheating opponents. That's why God saw fit to let these guys win 18 games in-a-row only to lose the one that mattered most.

Garcia Bronco · 05-09-2008, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnorix

You don't even know what the Patriots did, so perhaps you should save spouting off for something you do know about instead of your wild and incorrect guesses.

Yes we do know what they did, clown. So take your "elite" cheating team and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

Amnorix · 05-09-2008, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tuckdaddy

The Pats get caught and now everyone is a cheat. Whatever! Belicheat has been doing this for 8 years. He should be punished for 8 years worth not just a few games. Anyone that thinks he didn't video tape every year is just being stupid. The genius label can be officialliy removed. Genius's don't need Sony Handycams to win football games.

18-1 without video.

05-07-2008, 08:58 PM
noa Band Join Date: Sep 2005 Casino cash: $-644547	Walsh Gives NFL 8 Tapes of Pats Cheating http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3386162 Ex-Pats employee Walsh sends NFL video of Pats' taping After brokering a deal to protect himself, former New England Patriots employee Matt Walsh has finally turned over his evidence in the videotaping controversy. The New York Times reported and the NFL confirmed on Wednesday that Walsh sent eight tapes to the league that show the Patriots recording the play-calling signals of five opponents in six games between 2000 and 2002. Taping the signals of opposing teams is prohibited by league rules, and the Patriots were already fined $750,000 and docked a first-round draft choice in September for taping the New York Jets. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell left open the possibility that more penalties could be levied. A Patriots employee from 1997-2003, Walsh reached an agreement to turn over the tapes in exchange for being indemnified from all future legal fees. The New York Times obtained a list of the Walsh tapes, and the league confirmed that list, which says that the Patriots taped offensive and defensive coaches in regular-season games against the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers. The team also made video of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2002 AFC Championship Game. Walsh's tapes do not include the video of the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough before the 2002 Super Bowl, as reported by the Boston Herald. "Mr. Walsh has never claimed to have a tape of the walk-through," said Walsh's lawyer Michael Levy, according to the Times. "Mr. Walsh has never been the source of any of the media speculation about such a tape. Mr. Walsh was not the source for the Feb. 2 Boston Herald article." Walsh has separate meetings scheduled on Tuesday with the commissioner and Senator Arlen Specter in which he is expected to provide additional details about the taping process. Under his agreement with the league, Walsh can retain copies of his videotapes, but he cannot use them without the consent of the NFL.
Posts: 8,302

05-08-2008, 06:59 PM	#92
Hammock Parties I'll be back. Join Date: Nov 2002 Casino cash: $820478	The Broncos are innocent, I tell you! INNOCENT! __________________ Chiefs game films
Posts: 297,402

05-08-2008, 09:16 PM	#93
Dylan The Lede Join Date: Aug 2007 Casino cash: $10016591	And the pressure is on --- They don't give a eff ... They'll take you right down... The New York Times Sports of The Times A Decade of Sins Deserves a Year Out By HARVEY ARATON Published: May 9, 2008 What an extensive video library Bill Belichick turns out to have produced. Eight more spy tapes sent to N.F.L. headquarters for Commissioner Roger Goodell’s viewing pleasure by a former student in the New England Patriots’ film noir studies program. Who knows how many more taped over or discarded over the last eight years? Imagine the documentary possibilities for those talented folks at NFL Films, provided Goodell hasn’t already tossed the evidence into the fireplace with Tom Brady-like precision in a reprise of his mysterious spin cycle last fall. Now that the “totality of conduct” for which Belichick was cited by Goodell has officially expanded to the length of his tenure in New England, shouldn’t he be further punished as a serial offender, a con man who not only broke the rules but established secretly taping opponents as standard operating procedure? “If your wife cheats on you once, maybe you can forgive her, but if she cheats on you over the course of your entire marriage, that becomes unforgivable because she has flouted the rules, shown no respect for your marital contract,” said Sharon K. Stoll, director of the Center for Ethics at the University of Idaho and the author of “Sports Ethics: Applications for Fair Play.” “That is apparently what happened in this case, a disregard for the organization and its rules and it’s a big mess that the N.F.L. has on its hands because this coach happens to be an American icon, a man who has had a book written about him by David Halberstam,” Stoll said. “The league has to stand up and make a strong statement because the last impression it wants to leave is that this particular coach was above those rules.” Let me digress before explaining why I believe Belichick should now be barred from coaching the Patriots for one season, on top of the $750,000 in fines and the forfeiture of a first-round draft pick levied on him and the Patriots by Goodell last fall. (The money was the equivalent of a parking ticket and the draft pick not all that punitive in a year when the Patriots also had the 10th pick, from New Orleans.) In another context, I would gladly concede that my proposed punishment falls well short of fitting the crime. Espionage in a sport played and promoted as recreational warfare would seem to be a natural extension of the competition. Defending one’s team against it would require nothing more complicated than what a third-base coach does, disguise his signals, in full view of an entire ballpark six or seven times a week. But these are the rules set forth by the N.F.L., enforced by Goodell and reportedly reinforced in a league memo sent to the teams in 2006. To which Belichick at the very least responded by videotaping the Jets in the 2007 season opener that touched off the so-called Spygate affair, now encapsulated in its own online entry of the same name on Wikipedia.org. In other words: embarrassment to the league in perpetuity, courtesy of its team of the decade and reigning coaching genius. As rumors of additional tapes circulated before the Giants crushed the Patriots’ dream of a perfect season in Phoenix in February, including one of a filming of a St. Louis Rams pre-Super Bowl practice in 2002, Goodell made a point of saying, “It was not something that was done on a widespread basis.” Already you get the idea he wants everyone, especially the crusading Senator Arlen Specter, to believe there is nothing in the newly submitted tapes that Belichick hasn’t already detailed, as if all of this was already on the table for public inspection. The good news for Goodell is that the Patriots’ former video coordinator Matt Walsh apparently did not have the aforementioned tape that would have tainted at least one of the three Super Bowls claimed by Belichick’s Pats. But the real news here is, again, the establishment of Belichick’s cheating then (2000 to 2002), now (last season) and if we may extrapolate based on reasonable cause, in all likelihood in between. His explanation, his word, on this matter means as much as Roger Clemens’s on family values. “There obviously has been some lying going on — ‘oh, we did it once; we misinterpreted the rules, we didn’t mean to,’ ” said Stoll, the ethicist. As a liar and a cheater, what separates Belichick on the grand behavioral plane from your basic synthetic warrior who gets suspended four games when he produces a dirty test? Augmented by logic, the facts suggest Belichick has been cheating for almost a decade. And since replacing Paul Tagliabue, Goodell has fashioned himself the zero-tolerance commissioner, cracking down hard on those — players, that is — who would compromise the runaway popularity of the league with antisocial acts. Shouldn’t that policy be applied even more stringently to those in control? “They need to send a message here,” Stoll said. One year out. Then let’s see Belichick dare spy again in 2009.
Posts: 33,643

05-09-2008, 06:07 AM	#100
the Talking Can Supporter Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: street Casino cash: $9182208	has there ever been such a thin skinned fan of a successful team? hilarious.... __________________ Clark Hunt: "Thank god for the Dominican pool boy"
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