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May 08, 2008

Spygate – Pats partially off the hook

Former New England Patriots assistant coach Matt Walsh did not have any info on the Pats taping the St. Louis Rams’ pre-game walk-through at the 2002 Super Bowl, but did have info about the Pats taping regular-season games in 2000-2002. That includes new revelations that Pats head coach Bill Belichick has denied in the past:
While the tapes reportedly include recordings of opponents' offensive signals, an NFL official cited in today's Hartford Courant said Belichick did not admit to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that the team taped offensive signals. Belichick had previously admitted to taping opponents' defensive signals.

And Greg Aiello is speaking the party line for Goodell, it appears:
“This is consistent with that the Patriots had admitted they had been doing, consistent with what we already knew,” Aiello, the NFL’s senior vice president of public relations, told the Associated Press.

Sounds like pretty thin ice for Belichick. Given that all the games that Walsh has allegations on occurred before the Patriots’ first Super Bowl victory, even if the Rams’ walk-around wasn’t taped, Belichick is not close to being totally off the hook.

Unfortunately, Dillon appears to be swallowing Aiello’s line as well. Referencing Aiello’s comment, he says:
In other words, the NFL isn’t expecting to discover anything it doesn’t already know.

Well, Dennis, expectations can be wrongly focused as well as set too high.

And, you just have what we know so far. Walsh still has a meeting scheduled with Roger the Dodger May 13. He also has one scheduled with Sen. Arlen Specter, who’s been pushing the league on this because his Philly Iggles lost to the Pats three years ago.

That leads me to repost this old poll:


Free polls from Pollhost.com
Is Bill Belichck, regardless of whether any legal action is ever actually pursued
Criminally guilty of "stealing a trade secret"? Civilly liable for depriving Kurt Warner of earnings? Neither   



And to offer this new one:


Free polls from Pollhost.com
Is Belichick lying about not taping offensive signals of other teams?
Yes No   


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