Walsh meets
with Goodell, Specter
NEW YORK (AP)
- A murmur rippled across the room as the NFL revealed the tapes
provided by former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh.
The cause was
not some new revelation of wrongdoing by New England, which was
caught last September recording opposing coaches' signals in
violation of league rules.
No, the most
scandalous tidbit that emerged Tuesday after Walsh spent more
than six hours meeting separately with NFL commissioner Roger
Goodell and Sen. Arlen Specter? A snippet of tape that showed
not football but close-ups of San Diego Chargers cheerleaders
performing during a 2002 game.
Otherwise, little
fresh information surfaced. Asked if he considered the Spygate
investigation closed, Goodell said, "As I stand before you
today, and having met with Matt Walsh and more than 50 other
people, I don't know where else I would turn."
No new fireworks
came from Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, who has criticized the league's handling of the case.
When his afternoon meeting with Walsh in Washington ran long,
he postponed his news conference until Wednesday.
Walsh did not
comment after his morning meeting with Goodell and left through
a different exit to avoid the media gathered outside his session
with Specter.
Walsh provided
some closure - and a new nugget - about one of the most serious
allegations made against New England. He had no knowledge of
anybody with the Patriots taping the Rams' final walkthrough
leading up to the 2002 Super Bowl, Goodell said.
The Boston Herald
reported in February that an unidentified employee illegally
recorded the walkthrough before New England, a two-touchdown
underdog, upset St. Louis 20-17.
But Walsh did
claim a New England assistant asked him what he saw during the
walkthrough.
"For the
past three-and-a-half months, we have been defending ourselves
against assumptions made based on an unsubstantiated report rather
than on facts or evidence," the Patriots said in a statement.
They added: "We
hope that with Matt Walsh's disclosures, everyone will finally
believe what we have been saying all along and emphatically stated
on the day of the initial report: 'The suggestion that the New
England Patriots recorded the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough on
the day before Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 is absolutely false.
Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue."'
The Spygate investigation
began after the NFL confiscated tapes from a Patriots employee
who recorded the New York Jets' defensive signals during the
2007 opener. New England coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000,
while the team was fined $250,000 and forced to forfeit its 2008
first-round draft choice.
The tapes Walsh
provided confirmed what was already known. The clips cut between
shots of opposing coaches sending in signals and the play that
followed. Walsh did not shoot the footage of the cheerleaders,
NFL officials said.
Goodell said
Walsh had no information about any other spying by the Patriots.
"There was
no bugging of locker rooms," Goodell said. "There was
no manipulation of communication systems. There was no crowd
noise violations anywhere that he was aware of. No miking of
players to pick up opposing signals or audibles."
During the Rams'
pre-Super Bowl walkthrough in 2002, Goodell said, Walsh was in
the stadium in his Patriots gear setting up equipment. NFL officials
noted that it's common for personnel not connected to the team
to be present on that day.
Walsh told Goodell
that then-New England assistant Brian Daboll approached him later,
said NFL attorney Gregg Levy, who attended the meeting. Walsh
said he told the coach that running back Marshall Faulk was returning
kicks and described the Rams' use of tight ends in their formations.
Daboll did not mention the conversation when he was interviewed
by NFL officials about the walkthrough, Levy said.
Rams spokesman
Rick Smith declined comment.
Goodell made
no mention of the incident during his news conference. He realized
the oversight later, Levy said, and asked Levy to share the information
with reporters.
The NFL is looking
into the allegation, Levy said.
Daboll, now the
Jets quarterbacks coach, said in a statement: "I have cooperated
with the league's investigation and was completely truthful and
forthcoming. The league has requested to speak to me again. In
light of this request, I will not comment further other than
to say that I have been and will continue to be completely truthful,
cooperative, and forthcoming with the league."
Walsh shared
two potential violations of league rules unrelated to Spygate,
Goodell said: A player on injured reserve practiced when he wasn't
allowed to in 2001, and Walsh scalped eight to 12 Super Bowl
tickets for Patriots players over two seasons.
The NFL will
investigate both claims.
Last week, Walsh
sent the NFL eight videotapes of the Patriots recording playcalling
signals. The tapes included signals by coaches of five opponents
in six games from 2000-02.
Walsh worked
for New England from 1997 to 2003. His name surfaced just before
this year's Super Bowl, nearly five months after the Patriots
were sanctioned.
After more than
two months of negotiations, lawyers for the league and Walsh
agreed April 23 to terms that would allow him to talk with Goodell.
They included an agreement by the Patriots not to sue Walsh and
to pay his legal expenses and his airfare to New York from Hawaii,
where he is now a golf pro.
Specter, from
Pennsylvania, met with Goodell in February after raising the
possibility of congressional hearings if he wasn't satisfied
with the commissioner's answers about the handling of the investigation.
Specter has criticized the NFL's decision to destroy the tapes
it initially confiscated.
Why did Goodell
show Walsh's tapes Tuesday but not do the same with the others
last fall? He said releasing them during the season could have
put some teams at a competitive advantage or disadvantage.
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