At a time when most are eulogizing Spygate, the NFL hasn’t yet dropped the casket into the ground.
Per the New York Daily News, the league plans to re-interview former Pats (and current Jets) receivers coach Brian Daboll in the wake of the Tuesday interview of Matt Walsh.
Walsh told Goodell that Walsh was in the Superdome for the Rams’ walk-through practice prior to Super Bowl XXXVI, and that Walsh shared with Daboll a couple of the things Walsh saw.
That’s different from what Daboll previously told the league.
“What Matt Walsh told us was inconsistent with our prior understanding,” league spokesman Greg Aiello told the Daily News in an e-mail. “Brian Daboll did not tell us that.”
Before Tuesday, it wasn’t widely known that Walsh and other Patriots employees were in the Superdome at the time of the Rams’ walk-through. It remains to be seen whether the Rams knew about it.
If the Rams didn’t know, why didn’t they know? If the Rams did know, why in the hell did they conduct a walk-through with enemy combatants in the building?
And though it’s now being widely reported that there was no videotape, we think that more information needs to come out regarding who from the Patriots was in the Superdome, what they were doing, and what they weren’t doing.
Though we have no desire to step into the shoes of the Boston Herald on this subject, we think that the NFL and/or the Patriots need to quickly and clearly provide the media with enough evidence to rule out any type of electronic memorialization of the walk-through — either by video, still photos, or a guy talking into a hand-held tape recorder.
Otherwise, some folks will continue to carry around a nagging feeling that something happened back in February 2002 that shouldn’t have happened.
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I just watched a hilarious episode of Arthur. DW didn’t know what swears were, but she was told to say them … so very often when she and her friends spoke, there was a bleeeeeep. WTTW on a Wednesday morning and bleeps are flying out of the television. Good times.
Oh, and we all have that nagging feeling about that day in February of 2002. Here’s hoping nothing happened.
Time to sleep now.
Peace.
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:15 am
wow i’m shocked a couple more spygate story’s. and you say ESPN needs to talk about something else sorry but you are doin alot more talkin about it then they are. It’s not even a close second
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Lame article. The NFL probably just wants to hear it from Daboll directly to clarify that everyone is on the same page. Or did Daboll outright lie to the NFL when questioned?
The fact that there were Pats personnel in the dome when the Rams had their final walkthrough is not a Pats issue. The blame lies with the NFL for not scheduling and enforcing such things better and the Rams for going ahead with it.
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Mangenius opened this can of worms… I find it funny that now HIS assistants are being re-interviewed.
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:22 am
The Commisioner sounded loud and clear to me in regards to the question what they were doing in the building “their job” setting up video equipment which had no power for the next day.
The REAL QUESTION is why the heck would the Rams allow people in Patriot gear to be walking around the field during their walk-through.
Finally if the Rams were dumb enough to let the enemy watch their walk-through then why should that infomration not have been passed along IF it was passed along. Hard to believe a Jet Assistant would not rat out the Patriots if given the opportunity.
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Fire up the congressional review board……….we have a Jet coach lying now.
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Enough already!
All the gold in them thar hills has already been mined.
What remains is merely “iron pyrite”!
Finis!
P.S. Definitely not a Patriots Fan….go Stillers!
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Hopefully nothing happened back in February 2002.
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:47 am
We learned why Daboll got fired. If he has to ask a video guy for information he cant coach.
Walsh said M Faulk was returning punts or kickoffs and a TE went left or right. He must be the new Eric Mangini understudy with that information.
Sal Pal didnt laugh that off. He reported it seriously.
Unbelievable.
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Since it is the Super Bowl and all, wouldn’t you figure the NFL would have their own security people all over the place during the week leading up to the game? Even if they aren’t watching the field 24 hours a day, maybe when one of the teams or their staff is on the field there should be a handful of NFL security agents there as well?
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:53 am
It looks like MDS has got to Florio. He’s gone off the deep-end again.
There was no video.
Well how about tape recorder?
No.
Photos?
No.
Smoke signals?
No.
But you can’t say for 100% that Ernie Adams doesn’t have some kind of special powers?
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Here’s what I don’t get - Walsh told the Pat recievers coach where he saw Marshall Faulk lining up. How does that benifit the recievers coach. Presumably, he may have passed these little tid-bits along. However, I just assumed he wasn’t interested in taking advice froma sub-par cameraman. Regardless, it was arrogant and stupid of Mike Martz to run plays while Patriots employees were clearly in the stadium getting set up.
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May 14th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I THINK IT IS AMAZING THAT THEY WILL LOOK INTO THIS, JUST BECAUSE MATT WALSH SAID HE TOLD DABOLL THAT FAULK WAS GOING TO LINE UP AT RETURNER. YET, WHEN THERE IS SUSPICION OF TEAMS TAMPERING, THE LEAGUE WON’T DO A DAMN THING. THIS IS NONSENSICAL. JUST BECAUSE WALSH AND DABOLL EXCHANGED WORDS, DOESN’T MEAN ANY OF THEM WERE IN THE SUPERDOME WHILE DOING IT! GOD DAMN…
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May 14th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Ugh… The story that won’t die! Why didn’t this story come up yesterday???
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May 14th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Doesn’t matter - no rules were broken here. Even if they were, how could you possibly punish the Patriots for the non-disclosure of a Jets employee?
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May 14th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Yes, and let’s not foget that they should also still be investigating, trying to find out who was spying on the Patriots practices before the superbowl! What? You didn’t know that the NFL officials SAW someone spying on the Pats practices? It was reported in the New York Times after all.
Oh wait, the media doesn’t care about that. The media only cares about the Pats seeing a walkthrough. That is, even though I have heard some former coaches say you can tape every walkthrough they ever did, it won’t help you. If it would, why are the Rams stupid enough to allow Pats personnel on the field. If they did allow it, you can’t take anything from that session for your preparation, as it may be disinformation just as much as genuine information.
So the whole thing is, well, bogus, and a waste of resources…unless you are an ex-Jets employee with an agenda and an axe to grind.
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May 14th, 2008 at 10:41 am
As ESPN so amply showed yesterday, there’s a certain percentage of people who are going to believe the Patriots “cheated” no matter what.
[And, yes, “cheated” belongs in quotes; what they did is violate a rule to do something that is otherwise perfectly legal. As Tom Curran put it, it’s aggravated jaywalking, not vehicular homicide.]
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May 14th, 2008 at 11:12 am
The problem, Mike, is that there are people who will never be satisfied no matter what answers they get. The more answers that come out, the more questions they will ask. And its really for no other reason than they want to be the one who breaks the big story open on the Pats. Oh, they’ll tell themselves and everyone else that they’re just trying to be thorough and they just want the truth, but this is frankly turning into a witch hunt. You have to admit the level of hatred and scorn that the Patriots have had leveled at them has reached ridiculous heights. I fully admit I am a biased Pats fan, but I think this has gotten out of control. I’m pretty sure if the same level of investigation and scrutiny was leveled on any other team in the league, you’d find rule violations hiding in their closets as well. The Patriots brought this scrutiny upon themselves, but I just don’t see how these tapes were the reason they’ve been so good. They weren’t used in game, so that argument goes out the window. Does anyone really truly think the existence of these tapes were the reason they’ve been successful? If you’re going to point to close wins, I remind you these tapes weren’t used in game. And if you’re going to do that, then I guess we’ll have to start scrutinizing any game by any team that ends close, huh? I mean, what were they doing that could have given them that slight advantage, there had to be something.
I can’t believe that what they did helped them that much. So why did they do it? Maybe because most teams are looking for any kind of advantage, as I said. They took it too far. I just feel like the Patriots have been the fall guy for everyone else and it really pisses me off.
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May 14th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Pats fans are so cute. They’re going around high-fiving now, and telling themselves the uh “haters” have been defeated (”ratsum, fratsum, those durn Patsies have foiled us again! curses!) — when in fact they can’t see the most obvious victory of all. That we know, as this site said:
“First, Walsh says he was told to conceal his practice of videotaping defensive coaching signals. This directly contradicts coach Bill Belichick’s explanation that he merely misunderstood the rules. Goodell scoffed at the notion that Belichick should be subject to new punishment based on this disclosure, explaining that Goodell didn’t believe Belichick’s explanation in the first instance.
Still, the message is obvious. Belichick, by all appearances, lied about his interpretation of the rules.”
The shame has been confirmed, the tarnish will last forever. Yippee!
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May 14th, 2008 at 11:45 am
LOL!!!!! It must suck ass to be a fan of the Cheatriots these days. The Pats can’t even turn around without stepping in their own sh*t.
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May 14th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I think that that nagging feeling will continue irregardless of what happens.
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May 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
You’re missing an obvious point. I believe Daboll was Tomase’s source. Daboll thought he would never be identified, and his primary objective was to keep the heat on his former employer, pursuant to the implicit or explicit instructions of Tangini.
The facts are these: Walsh videotaped nothing at the Rams walkthrough, and Tomase got the story wrong. Now we might want to ask how and by whom — and for what reason — Tomase was misinformed.
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May 14th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
He is the QB coach, not receivers coach
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May 14th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Umm Florio? How could they provide evidence that something didn’t happern? How does one prove a negative?
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May 15th, 2008 at 9:17 am
bradtor777, a Passionate Fan, says:
May 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
You’re missing an obvious point. I believe Daboll was Tomase’s source. Daboll thought he would never be identified, and his primary objective was to keep the heat on his former employer, pursuant to the implicit or explicit instructions of Tangini.
Don’t you think that if that was the case the Herald would not have apologized the day after Matt Walsh met with the NFL and SPecter? Clearly Walsh was the source.
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