ESPN.com (along with every sports news outlet in the land) is reporting that the highly anticipated "Matt Walsh Tapes" (or MWTs) provided absolutely no new information to the NFL.
The tapes contained no (I repeat no) walk-through of the St. Louis Rams from the 2002 Super Bowl. No walk-through from the 2003 Super Bowl. No walk-through from the 2005 Super Bowl. In fact, no walk-thoughs. Ever. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero.
All the MWTs did was confirm what the Patriots have already told the commissioner: Occationally, they taped the defensive coordinator. And if you'll refer to my comments when this story broke, I still have no idea how this is adventagious or why it's illegal since you can sit a man in the booth to study him and, as Mike Shanahan (former head coach of the Denver Broncos) said, "Our guy keeps a pair of binoculars on their signal-callers every game. With any luck, we have their defensive signals figured out by halftime. Sometimes, by the end of the first quarter." Not only that, but Bill has been saying since day one that it was a misinterpretation of the rule. Now we learn that his "illegal" taping has been uniform. There is no truth to the alleged taping that was rumored to be above and beyond what the Patriot's have already admitted to.
Here is what I think is due (but in now way expect to happen): An apology from the Boston Herald, one from the Senator from PA who is such an Eagles homer that he launched an "independent" investigation to what may or may not have happened before the NE/PHILLY Super Bowl, one from every fan from every other team who has taken the allegations as fact, an apology from anyone who has displayed that "Cheaters" Patriots logo with the camera up to the Flying Elvis' face, and one from anyone who pretends that the Patriots are the only team who was doing this. If there's a rule about it, it's because it's rampant. Otherwise, the Patriots would have simply received a stern talking to. Furthermore, if it were only the Patriots who were engaged in this activity, there'd have been no reason to "make an example" of them by handing out the most severe fines and penalties possible.
I'd also like to remind everyone that the Patriots won 17 games in a row without "cheating." If the Jets really wanted to stick it to the Patriots, they should have blown the whistle on them during week 15, not week 1. Basically, not much has changed since I first responded to "Spygate."
All the Patriots have to worry about is continuing their winning ways. I'm amazed that this season they seem to have landed an easy schedule. Even the Giants could win a few with the opponents New England will be facing. Really anything less than 14-2 would be disappointing. Not only that, but their first 6 games are looking fairly easy. It appears the bar for most consecutive regular season games won is going to be set at about 25! That's quite a feat!
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Remember that Senator from PA who is the huge Eagles fan? Remember I suggested that he appologize? Well, what do you know? I was wrong!
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3395829
He's calling for something similar to the Mitchel report. Please. The Mitchel report investigated wide spread cheating in baseball. He's claiming that it's only the Patriots yet it requires this huge investigation? Do I sense a little homerism? Just what I like to see: Senators wasting tax payer money!
The one thing that Walsh said that people are taking to be damaging is that the Patriots told him to conceal what he was doing. Well, duh! If you think you've found a loop-hole that gives you a competative edge do you want other teams discovering it? If someone sees you filming their Defensive Coordinator and they take a look at the rules and find the same loop-hole suddenly you've lost your edge. It's foolish to think that the fact that he was told to conceal it meant that they knew they were breaking the rules. It is in no way indicitive of that.
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