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So I’m reading for the twentieth time the agreement signed on Wednesday by the NFL and Matt Walsh, and something hit me.
The agreement specifically provides indemnity for Walsh with respect to “any alleged audiotaping by Walsh of any of his superiors while employed by the Club.” And that’s surely a reference to the contention from Patriots V.P. of player personnel Scott Pioli that Walsh was fired for secretly recording conversations between the two of them.
At the time, Walsh’s lawyer called the allegation a “complete fabrication.” So if it’s a complete fabrication, why would the indemnity agreement specifically include such activities? If it’s a “complete fabrication,” there’s no need to seek indemnity, is there?
April 24th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Mass. Ann. Laws ch. 272 , § 99: It is a crime to record any conversation, whether oral or wire, without the consent of all parties in Massachusetts. The penalty for violating the law is a fine of up to $10,000 and a jail sentence of up to five years.
Disclosure of the contents of an illegally recorded conversation, when accompanied by the knowledge that it was obtained illegally, is a misdemeanor that can be punished with a fine of up to $5,000 and imprisonment for up to two years. Civil damages are expressly authorized for the greater of actual damages, $100 for each day of violation or $1,000. Punitive damages and attorney fees also are recoverable.
hopefully html will work here. K, so. If he fesses up to the illegal taping, and hands over his tapes, it is a misdemeanor, according to the above. “Civil damages” is the key here…his indemnity prevents civil damages being filed against him by all parties who have a stake in this. The state of Mass could, conceivably, file charges, but with the indemnity in place, it is not likely he would be charged, as he willingly came forward and handed (will hand) over the materials.
That said…I am a Patriots fan, and always will be. I think that this was a lie that grew into something much bigger. I think that Walsh (nor the media) knew about Belichick already fessing up to the taping all the way back to 2000 is huge. I think Walsh got into something bigger than he was. The guy obviously likes to embellish…just look at his resume. He thought he could feed the frenzy a bit and back off quietly. But the media started digging into HIS life, and flushing out his lies and embellishments. His reputation was at stake, and then a certain Senator jumped on board. And Walsh saw the hooplah as a way OUT of what was now hanging over his head as potential criminal charges. He could fess up, share what he knew, then say “I wasnt the one making it a big deal”, and walk away unscathed in terms of criminal charges. This way he looks like a schmuck, but not a criminal. Thats my take.
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April 24th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
TO TCLARK:
You seem to be missing the main point here, intentionally or otherwise: the revelation in the Boston Herald in February, 2008, that something OTHER than what had already been addressed had occurred during the Rams walk-through prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. And while the direct connection has yet to be made to Walsh, IF it turns out that Walsh made or knew that tapes had been made of the pre-game practice prior to the Super Bowl with the Rams, then these discussions about a NEW event are totally relevant, although clearly inconvenient to homer Pats fans who can’t seem to deal with the consequences of their team’s actions.
Oh, and btw — both of your other arguments are weak. 1. EVERYBODY cheats. Wrong. And 2. That all of the comments that address how the Patriots are cheaters and most likely have not even begun to be punished the way they should are merely the results of the “Pats haters”. (For example, the fact that a Dallas assistant coach was suspended for ordering/taking steroid medication for his own medical condition because those steroids MIGHT have ended up being used by Cowboy players yet Belichick wasn’t suspended despite having done something CLEARLY detrimental to the league as a whole just stinks of “sweeping under the carpet”.) Frankly, I could care less one way or the other about the Pats. What I DO care about is a team that thinks it’s above the rules. You have evidence that other teams have cheated? Bring it! And let the powers that be punish all who are found guilty. That’s simple enough, isn’t it? In the meantime, the only team PROVEN to have cheated is the Patriots. And so, with each NEW revelation of cheating that appears, NEW investigations and discussions are warranted. As someone else already pointed out, the only people who DON’T get that are Pats fans. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
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April 24th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
And P.S. you cannot have a legal document of any sort that is written that one side or the other has to not disclose illegal activities of the other party. So there is no way that Walsh can get himself protected from the league disclosing to authorities any illegal activities he may have committed.
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April 24th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
BTW, why are you Patriots haters so angry? It seems the more rational an argument a Pats fan makes, the more you attack. You constantly attack Pats fans intelligence, but many of you don’t even try to bring anything to the table other than insults.
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April 24th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
The whole thing is beautifully ironic. An alleged illegal taping of a conversation between a boss and an employee involving an alleged illegal directive. When you step back and see the big picture, it’s really quite a sight.
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April 24th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I am a pats fan, I am not going to BS about cover the Pats and they were innocent blah blah. What I do have to say is that what does every Tom, Dick and Harry NFL fan think is going to happen if Walsh has more on Bill Belichick. Does everyone think he’ll punished even further that he’ll get suspended for a year, maybe even banned; yeah those are all possibilities but what do you think Bill is going to do? There goes the Pats now my (insert your team here) will do well. What’ll happen if he is done as an NFL coach that he’ll go away, nope he’ll spill the beans boys and girls about everything he knows… I mean everything there are things that he has knowledge of that we the general public have the slightest idea even exists. So what could be at stake could be the NFL itself. If people think that the Pats are the only cheaters then you are naive. I am not saying what they did was right it was wrong and they got punished. Just like Broncos and 49ers did for screwing with their salary cap. They got punished if Bill was as likeable as Tony Dungy or Peyton Manning this would have gone away. People naturally hate winners when they continually succeed. The biggest problem here is the league and what I mean by that is we could lose what we all hold near and dear every Sunday from September to February every year because some douche bag lost his job and is a little ticked off and some smuck senator has nothing better to do than investigate the NFL, I figured crime, health care, taxes, education, and about 50 other things would come first but I guess I have my priorities screwed up, cheating in the NFL is more important.. All this because the Pats are the “only” team engaged in cheating everyone else doesn’t have any skeletons in the league. I apologize for the length.
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April 24th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I’m all for being a fan, but some fans cannot see past their allegiance to their team, in this case the Patriots, and admit what happened was wrong. It was a clear and blatant violation of NFL rules, not to mention that Roger Goodell went as far as to issue a memo to all 32 teams forbidding the use of video recording devices from the sidelines. Now answer me this…if Belichick is such a “genius” am I really expected to believe that he “didn’t understand” the rule? Come on Pats fans, your coach cheated, it was embarrassing, and it’s something you all just have to live with.
That said, if there is any more to this story, I think Roger Goodell has a responsibility to get to the bottom of it. Then he can either send Matt Walsh back into obscurity if he’s full of it, or levy the proper punishment on the Patriots if there is more hard evidence against them. The point is, you can’t just hope this all goes away. It’s way too late for that.
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April 24th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
hey guys, Vermeil has said this has been going on forever with coaches. look it up since apparently Jimmy Johnson is no good but Levy is. let’s hear the Vermeil excuse lol.
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April 24th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
ManginisCameraMan –
I wish the other Pats fans who post here were more like you. What you said is, for the most part, spot on. And that’s WHY, if you look at some of the posts here, you’ll see a prevailing sense that Goodell is hellbent on sweeping this thing under the carpet. Look, man — if we’re all big boys and girls here, we can admit that Belichick’s cheating was not an isolated incident. I understand that. And I think most posters here understand that. (By the same token, it’s not an excuse for what the Pats did and got caught doing either).
But BECAUSE it’s obviously not an isolated incident, the NFL is petrified that Belichick will spill the beans. And I’d go so far as to say that anyone who doesn’t realize that this is what’s at the core of all of this is not seeing things clearly. So the real question here is: do those of us who love football really WANT the truth? Personally, I do. And if it means some sort of wholesale housecleaning, so be it. Things have obviously gotten out of control, and this really is just the tip of the iceberg. But what’s the alternative? To play “Emperor’s New Clothes” and pretend everything is honky dory? Not this fan.
And please, let me be crystal clear — this has NOTHING to do with hating the Pats, or being envious of the Pats, etc. It has everything to do, however, with loving the truth. You can choose to accept that or not, but that’s my primary motivation. I liked watching the Cowboys win in their dynasty days. I liked watching the Niners win in their dynasty days. And I even liked the Steelers (I had to throw up a little bit in my mouth saying that one) during their dynasty days. I didn’t, however, like the Broncos. But not because of their W/L record — it was only because of the way Elway dissed the Colts and refused to come here after being drafted by them. But that had nothing to do with whether he won games or lost games in Denver; it only had to do with the snub.
At the very least, it’ll be very interesting to see how this all plays out. Thanks for your post.
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April 25th, 2008 at 8:47 am
I’ve enjoyed watching the Pats win their Dynasty too!
Look, the Pats created a video archive that included signal stealing. The only violation there was the location of the cameras.
Nothing says they couldnt do it again simply from a different location. Doesnt that bother you a little -as a football fan? Heck we even know that the Jets were taping the games for a similar type of archive (their camera man was ejected from Gillette stadium). The NFL can get the situation under control by simply more clearly defining straightforward rules.
Actually, I want the truth too. But Goodell says he will punish the Pats if something new comes from the Matt Walsh info ….makes me wonder just how far back he can go with any team. If someone comes forward with info regarding SBII does that give Goodell the right to sanction that team? It’s ridiculous to go keep going back and trying to penalize teams for what may have been commonplace. Goodell should concentrate on laying down clear and direct rules and enforcing them going forward.
And to the haters I just wonder what excuse you have for last year and for next year and the years to come when the Pats dynasty continues to dominate your teams.
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