We actually feel kind of bad for John Tomase of the Boston Herald. In February, he wrote the H-bomb article regarding the allegation that the hometown Patriots cheated the St. Louis Rams in connection with Super Bowl XXXVI.
Tomase, like other writers, had been chasing former Pats employee Matt Walsh ever since a review of the relatively small list of former Pats video employees after Spygate I revealed that Matt Walsh was a person who might have useful information.
It was generally believed among the folks chasing Walsh that Walsh would say that he videotaped the Rams’ final walk-through practice. The only problem is that Walsh wouldn’t actually say it into a tape recorder or other equivalent sound preservation device. Our guess is that Tomase and/or the Herald were reluctant to run with Walsh’s claims absent Walsh going on the record. That stance apparently changed on February 1, when Walsh finally decided to talk on the record, vaguely and incompletely, about his role in practices that might constitute cheating.
And so the “Pats Cheated In The Super Bowl” article ran the day before Super Bowl XLII, which was supposed to be the final act of a 19-0 season.
After the Giants pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NFL history, Pats fans turned their venom toward Tomase and the Herald.
And, to their credit, the Herald continues to allow reader venting via the comments feature appended to Tomase’s articles. Consider, if you will, the comments on Tomase’s latest offering, a round-one mock draft.
Things will only get worse for the Herald and Tomase if Walsh’s May 13 meeting with Commissioner Roger Goodell doesn’t result in corroboration of the controversial February 2 report.
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April 25th, 2008 at 8:11 am
I don’t know, I remember comments on Tomase stories like that prior to the February 1st bombshell.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Think Tomase might be clicking the ‘Report as Abusive’ button next to some of those posts??
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:16 am
He deserves everything he gets!
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Nothing Tomase ever writes again will have any validity in New England. He may actually have transcended the now gone Ron Borges as the most reviled sportswriter in the area’s history.
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Rating: 2.6 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:26 am
The Herald has already kissed goodbye their access to the Pats.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Walsh better corroborate the Herald story or both the Herald and Tomase are in big trouble. By journalistic standards, they should not have run the story in the first place. If after the fact they don’t get corroborated, the paper may be under new ownership, staffed with new reporters and editor by the end of the summer. Both the Herald and Tomase deserve everything coming to them.
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Rating: 2.6 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Tomase should learn to have some hard evidence before he writes a smear piece. He’s getting what he deserves.
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Rating: 2.6 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Those comments are priceless.
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Yep, that sounds like Patriots fans.
Scapegoat a guy for doing his job, since Randy Moss didn’t do his.
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Rating: 2.7 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:47 am
I am glad you posted this. Tomase has personally thrown a grenade into his career in Boston. However, it’ll pay dividends for him in the future I’m sure…ESPN or SI.com will hire him when he “leaves Boston to pursue other interests”.
I hope the Pats file a lawsuit against the Herald and when they do it’ll serve as the impedus to Tomase’s exit.
Good riddens to him when he goes.
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Florio, didn’t you report that Martz said there was no walk though before the superbowl? How can walsh have a tape of it?
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Rating: 2.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Well, isn’t that typical of New England Patriots fans - arrogant and defiant to the end (they have soooo much in common with Jets fans!). Love the latest comments - especially since they seem to be from PFT readers!!
http://bostonherald.com/sports/football/other_nfl/view.bg?articleid=1089549&format=comments&cnum=2
Bill Belli-cheat had a great one to start it off!!! Love it!
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Tomasi and the Herald deserve what they get. Timing that uncorroborated smear the way they did was cheap and unprofessional.
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:51 am
The Herald and Tomase will be vindicated shortly after May 13
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Yeah..Randy Moss didn’t do his job like Tom Brady is a average quarterback. What are you smokin BoKnows??
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 9:02 am
I believe he means in the superbowl Patsfan2257. And what was smoking was any hope of the perfect season for the pats. Tomasse for president 2012.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 9:03 am
The comments Tomase gets are definitely worse than the typical ones Mike Reiss gets at the other boston paper, but they are not unique to sports writers. Most major sports sites that allow comments have their trolls including this one. Pete Prisco seems to have one of the worst collections dogging him.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Check the fat lards photo. Looks like he ate Matt Walsh!
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 9:06 am
those are some bitter fans. could you imagine the back lash if that was philly going for their first title and they lost.
i do like that “florio” got in the mix though
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Guess 23 Rec TDs in a single season isn’t doing his job…
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Hey there’s a comment left by “Mike Florio” for Tomase
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Rating: Not yet rated
April 25th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Did people read the user IDs of the people who posted on Tomase’s mock draft that Florio linked to?
“Mike Florio:
You know nothing, keep lying in your articles!! #261892 - Apr 25, 2008 8:07 AM EDT -Report Abuse -”
LOL. Was that really you Mike?! haha..you got him good!
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 9:21 am
LOL. Pats fans are funny.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 9:21 am
As a Dolphin fan, from Connecticut living in Tampa, I think it is so amusing that the Pat’s fans have become what they loaved for years. Bitter and angry,rude and obonixous, they became Jet fans! Love every minute of it. Keep up the good work Boston newspapers!
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
April 25th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I wrote Tomase a nasty letter when that came out (before the Superbowl, since whether the Pats won or lost it was obnoxious to run that story mid-SB week), and I haven’t read anything of Tomase’s, or even anything on the Herald at all, since.
The coverage at the Herald sucks since Al Breer left anyway, but that article was the last straw.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)