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By MICHAEL PARENTE After three and a half months of political grandstanding and posturing, former New England Patriots’ videographer Matt Walsh finally met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday and showed us nothing we didn’t already know. Walsh failed to produce a secret video of the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI – just more mundane footage of opposing coaches’ signals and a few choice cuts featuring scantily-clad cheerleaders waving pom-poms on the sidelines (the cameraman apparently hasn’t had a date in quite some time).
As a result, Goodell declared “Spygate” a dead issue, and Patriots’ fans declared a victory for the hometown team. Vindication? Slow down and pump the brakes. The truth is, New England-based media personalities – and fans alike – are using the lack of walkthrough footage as a way to cover up the real story and conveniently ignore the fact they were wrong on so many levels when “Spygate” first surfaced in September. Who cares if the Patriots did or didn’t tape St. Louis’ walkthrough seven years ago? What can possibly be gained from watching players in sweat pants and uniform tops line up halfheartedly for one last dress rehearsal before the Super Bowl? A video of an opposing teams’ walkthrough is not nearly as useful as a tape featuring coaches and coordinators flashing hand signals, as evident by the fact the Patriots admittedly have been filming the latter since Bill Belichick arrived in 2000. The only reason anyone cared about a possible video of the Rams’ walkthrough is because a) the story broke on the eve of Super Bowl XLII in Arizona, casting a unnecessary storm cloud over the most highly-anticipated championship game in NFL history, and b) it involved the granddaddy of all sporting events. Put yourself in the NFL’s shoes – if something as pure as the Super Bowl can be tarnished, nothing is sacred. In an attempt to protect its image, the league tweaked Walsh until he finally broke his silence. Come to find out, there was no tape after all, so everyone walked away feeling “Spygate” was much ado about nothing. They’re wrong, and so were many of the talking heads and basement bloggers who offered their two cents during “Spygate’s” infant stages. One of the most popular opinions was that filming opposing coaches’ signals offered no advantage whatsoever, therefore it wasn’t that big a deal. Then why did the Patriots do it for eight years? Why would they risk getting caught – and subsequently punished – for something that gave them no discernable advantage? No one has provided a reasonable answer to that question yet, and I doubt anyone ever will. Belichick is no dummy. He knew sneaking a camera onto the sidelines and recording the opposition’s signals might help him somewhere down the road, which is why the Patriots continued to do it until they got caught. Walsh explained the process to Sen. Arlen Specter on Wednesday. An offensive player would memorize the signals, watch for them on the sideline, and pass them on to former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, who would then relay the message to quarterback Tom Brady. Belichick also knew it was wrong, which is why he never called the league office to check on that so-called “misinterpretation” of the rulebook before his cameraman popped off the lens cap. For the record, Belichick’s now-infamous rebuttal to the “Spygate” allegations, in which he claims he “misinterpreted” the rules, is no less flimsy or lame than Roger Clemens’ suggestion that Andy Pettitte “misremembered” a conversation between the two of them regarding performance-enhancing drugs. Thankfully, Goodell didn’t buy it either. The bottom line is the Patriots still haven’t admitted they did something wrong. They’ve apologized for causing a distraction, but never said they were sorry for blatantly disrespecting NFL rules. They illegally skirted the league’s attempt to maintain competitive balance for eight years, yet they won’t fess up – much like Clemens, who refuses to admit he used performance-enhancing drugs while his defense, and credibility, continues to fall apart. Others suggest that since the Patriots allegedly gained nothing from taping the New York Jets’ signals in Week 1 – the film was confiscated in the first quarter and New England broke the game open in the second half – they really didn’t do anything wrong. Ever hear of intent? I remember an episode of “Growing Pains” where Mike Seaver planned to cheat on a test by writing the answers on the bottom of his shoes. Turns out he put so much effort into doctoring his sneakers that he ended up memorizing the answers and didn’t need to use his unorthodox cheat-sheet after all. Mike eventually got caught he when he foolishly put his feet on top of his desk, and was subsequently punished. He never cheated, but he intended to, which is no better than actually committing the crime. At the risk of sounding one-sided, I’ll blame the league for this mess, too. The Patriots were also caught illegally filming signals in Green Bay two years ago, yet the NFL did nothing. For a league that promotes competitive balance as one if its main attributes, you’d think there’d have been some sort of immediate investigation. Instead, we didn’t find out about this story until after the Patriots got busted at the Meadowlands last season. Furthermore, Goodell dropped the ball when he waited five months to tell reporters that Belichick admitted he’d been taping signals since the Patriots hired him in 2000. That’s not irrelevant information – as has been stated before, that admission proves the Patriots were getting something useful out of their video escapades, otherwise they would’ve stopped a long time ago at the risk of getting caught. If anything, Walsh’s inability to produce a videotape of the Rams’ walkthrough damages the integrity of the Boston Herald, which broke this story in February, and absolves the Patriots of at least one crime they claimed they didn’t commit. However, it doesn’t nothing to change the fact they broke the rules for eight years without a valid explanation. Others might claim this latest development as a victory, but there are still many questions left unanswered. |
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