NFL should go after other Spygate culprit
Throughout the Spygate scandal that tarnished their three Super Bowl victories and branded their coach a cheater, several people within the New England Patriots organization privately fumed because they believed other teams also broke the NFL videotaping policy.
That frustration is likely to become more widespread within the New England organization even as the rest of the NFL breathes a sigh of relief that Spygate didn’t implicate anyone else.
The question is, why not?
During a three-hour, 15-minute interview with commissioner Roger Goodell and other league representatives, including director of security Milt Ahlerich, former New England videotape employee Matt Walsh implicated one other team of cheating.
”There was only one other time that I ever suspected another team of possibly shooting our signals,” Walsh told HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, a show that is re-airing time and again on the network. “Both of us were shooting together on the roof of the old Foxborough Stadium. I was filming their defensive coaches sending in their signals, and I would look over when we were on defense, and I’d see him panning over to our sideline and then going back to the field, panning over and going back.”
Walsh suspected the other team’s video employee of committing the exact same infraction.
”I didn’t say anything to him, because I was doing the same thing he was,” Walsh said. ‘But, you know, after the game, I went into our defensive coach’s office, talked with [then defensive coordinator] Romeo Crennel and said to Romeo, `You know, the team we just played, you know, I think was shooting our signals,’ or ‘The team we just played I think was doing to us what we do to them. So, the next time we play them, we might want to change up our defensive signals a little bit.’ ”
miamiherald.com
5/24/08
Magnolia Tribune
