May 09 2008
SpyGate will never end…
So Matt Walsh finally turns over the video tapes he has of the New England Patriots recording opponents signals. The spin thus far has been there is no smoking gun, hence the whole thing will be rendered finished come May 13th when the NFL and Senator Arlen Specter interview Walsh.
Ummm, no it ain’t over.
Due to the fact that Bill Belichek apparently admitted to regularly recording opponents signals since 2000, and all Walsh turned over were sideline signals and not walkthroughs (such as the 2001 Superbowl versus the Rams), many think the league will be able to quickly end this story. While that may be true, the truth is the story will live on. Especially, if the Patriots begin to erode and win no additional championships.
The reality is, the tapes had to help them. Unless Belichek ever comes clean about why he did it and how it helped, we may never know the true impact of his recording. But consider the idea that for 7 years they had this practice, whether it was select usage or routine usage. Is there anything you do for 7 years which you don’t feel has some value to you? The individual players may never have known anything about this, but consider for just one minute if the coaches knew the opponent had a screen coming. All they had to do is signal in a defensive play they know allows the players to read screen and they can trust them to shut the play down.
The reality is, there are more tapes. The league was given six tapes and various notes from games over the years by the Patriots. Matt Walsh has turned over eight additional tapes. Remember, how Matt Walsh fought so hard for protection against law suits? The reality is he stole these tapes. I’m sure the Patriots have policy against staff removing such things. He probably only had these tapes because they were the only ones he had access to either upon leaving or he was able to stash away over time. Do you honestly believe that over seven years the Patriots only recorded 14 games?
Consider just this from John Clayton’s article:
Tapes 2-3: Miami defensive and offensive signals (Oct. 7, 2001)
The Patriots lost 30-10 at Miami to drop to 1-3. The Pats gained 149 total yards and fell to 6-14 overall under Belichick. (They’re 99-26 since.) In a Dec. 22 rematch, the Pats gained 313 yards and didn’t commit a turnover, winning 20-13 to improve to 10-5. Miami had three turnovers.
Did they just get better after that point or did their videotaping practice start paying dividends?
By the way, I’m an Eagles fan, so I won’t pretend that I haven’t wondered about the Superbowl. I’m not saying the Patriots didn’t deserve to win their titles or that the knowledge gained from these tapes garnered them victories. But the reality is, the knowledge was available to them, and they had to be using it.
This story won’t go away…ever. Every team who played against the Patriots during this era, is going to wonder why the Patriots always seemed one step ahead. When Bill Belichek goes up for entry into the Hall of Fame, the questions about the video tapes will always be there.
