After brokering a deal to protect himself, former New England Patriots employee Matt Walsh has finally turned over his evidence in the videotaping controversy.
The New York Times reported and the NFL confirmed on Wednesday that Walsh sent eight tapes to the league that show the Patriots recording the play-calling signals of five opponents in six games between 2000 and 2002.
Taping the signals of opposing teams is prohibited by league rules, and the Patriots were already fined $750,000 and docked a first-round draft choice in September for taping the New York Jets. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell left open the possibility that more penalties could be levied.
A Patriots employee from 1997-2003, Walsh reached an agreement to turn over the tapes in exchange for being indemnified from all future legal fees.
The list of the Walsh tapes indicates that the Patriots taped offensive and defensive coaches in regular-season games against the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers. The team also made video of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2002 AFC Championship Game.
It is personal now. We lost that game 24-17, and it is not too out of bounds to suggest that the margin of victory, one touchdown, was through cheating.
Bill Belichick- Cheater.
New England Patriots- Cheaters.
They should have their Superbowl stripped from them, as well as the AFC championship, and Belichick should get a lifetime ban.
pharniel
guys got banned for life from baseball for less.
but yha. that’s crazy.
Billy K
Is it too late for Bush to appoint him to a cabinet position?
Dayv
Yeah, I’m finding it difficult to work myself up over this. Therefore, congressional hearings are probably right around the corner.
See also: baseball, steroids.
Zifnab
Is it too late for Bush to be appointed as his replacement?
Wilfred
Stealing those signals was intended to toughen the Steelers up in case they made it to the Super Bowls. Their failure to win indicates that they just weren’t tough enough and that their opponents would have trounced them in the Big Contest – does anyone think that the NFC candidate would not have stolen the signals?
Bill Belichick was in it to win it. Get over it.
Punchy
How and why in the fuck does Walsh have possession of these tapes? First of all, aren’t they owned by the Pats? If so, why does he have them, and they dont? If not, why in fuck’s hell would the Pats NOT buy them/force him to turn them over when he was canned?
I’m am seething in fury over just what a fucking fuckity fuckstain Belicheater is. I agree….lifetime ban.
Bobzim
There we go.
cmorenc
This is but one of the things I like vastly better about soccer (“football” to the rest of the world) than American “football” – COACHES’ INFLUENCE DURING GAMES IS RELATIVELY SMALL AND UNIMPORTANT – the overwhelmingly vast majority of effective coaching is done between games. Games dynamically unfold without all the interruptions. You could have a video crew following Alex Fergueson around the entire season during Man U. games and it would not do opponents one whit of good to study the tapes before playing Man U.
Dan
Oh I don’t know – as arrogant cheaters who did their best to hide their wrongdoing I’d say they are the perfect sports team for the Bush Era.
cmorenc
Also, no officials blathering on about calls between plays. Whistle, point for the restart, and go, ball’s back into play.
Pats Fan
Sorry. The reason you lost that game was Kordell Stewart. And you didn’t need video to see how lousy he was.
Dave
Stop whining. Belichick is the Ghengis Khan of coaches. You should be honored to fall under his sword.
Maybe you lost in 2002 because of cheating. Or maybe you just got owned by your betters.
PatsFan
So, they filmed it during the game. Big deal, how does that help them in that game? (Before you say they could make adjustments at halftime, check out the box score. Pats were up 14-3 at half).
Steelers lost because (1) they suck, and (2) they would rather whine than get better.
Oh, and your QB was Kordell Stewart. Yeah, he was so good.
Bobzim
Seriously, if you are tenured, you need to be more focused on Mike Garrison’s cheating than on Belichik’s.
Much, Much, Much, Bigger Problem.
A Different Matt
I don’t get this. Do you really believe the Pats are the only team that steals coaching signals? This has been a sore spot in baseball since time immemorial, it’s hard for me to believe Belichick introduced stealing signals to football in ‘o7 or whatever.
4tehlulz
Crap. I wish I got sports radio in the office. The BAWWWWING from Patriots fans would be epic.
EdTheRed
Carson Palmer’s left knee called. He said tough shit.
Reverend Spooner
As an Eagles fan, I agree completely. (Sure, no evidence uncovered they taped my team. Yet.)
Punt the bastards out of the league. Let the entire region of New England root for New York teams for the next 30 years. I live here, and I’m sick of every bastard I run in to cheering on those deceptive scumbag motherfucks.
4tehlulz
No one does. The problem with the Pats is that they took it to “THIS IS WHY WE CANNOT HAVE NICE THINGS!” levels of arrogance about it that they were asking to get slapped down.
Also, lesson: don’t treat ex-coaches like shit when you do this kind of stuff. They’ll get you.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
Vapid excuses to levied at the turn of the year:
Wrong is wrong. Spend the effort to correct it or save your energy, but you people look like douches when you can’t even admit obvious rule breaking.
Martin
Yeah, well Hillary says that if neither team fielded their black players that the Pats would have won anyway, so the Steelers still lose. Oh and…
dr. bloor
ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
Mike
Just slap an asterisk on their Super Bowl rings.
kwAwk
After the tone of the last week or so I was expecting to read at the end about how Bill Clinton should be stripped of his Presidency and Hillary Clinton should be banned from the Democratic Party for life.
So this was a nice change of pace.
I do agree that the Pats should be stripped of their Superbowl title in every year they were caught cheating, and forfiet the games of other years.
The ‘everybody is doing it’ defense is rather pathetic. In baseball if you get caught stealing signs your next batter is likely to get a fast ball to the head, so it is frowned upon. But in any case cheating is cheating.
Is anybody else besides me tired of the mentality that says cheating is part of the game?
Doug
Belichick reminds me of the evil dojo leader in the Karate Kid.
But, I’m still pissed off about Willie McGinest faking an injury in a 2003 game against the Colts.
I’m still waiting for Belichick to just go all Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight on the League:
or possibly:
Pooh
John,
There’s no crying in football. Pussy.
Dave
Jesus, John, get over it already. The idea that a team could make a tape and then break it down in the limited amount of time for halftime to actually make a difference in a game is ridiculous. And it definitely wasn’t Kordell throwing two INTs in the last three minutes. Nope.
As rational as you are about everything else, you’re a nut when it comes to this.
horatius
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn!!!!! Get over it Johnny boy. The steelers lucked out the one win they got with uselessburger, thanks to Carson’s knee.
kwAwk
Pooh Says:
John,
There’s no crying in football. Pussy.
__________________
And there’s no video taping your opponents signals in football either. Or perhaps you have forgotten about that. There is a difference though, there are no lifetime bans for crying in football.
Seitz
Quit your whining. I hate the Patriots, but this rule is ridiculous. As if you can “spy” on someone standing in front of 70,000 people waiving his arms around while 50 cameras are present. And oh yeah, videotaping the guy isn’t illegal. It’s only illegal to do it from the field. So in other words, they can stick a guy in the 10th row doing the same thing and it’s perfectly fine. Dumbest. Rule. Ever.
Oh, and any other team that says they don’t do the same thing is lying.
Zifnab
It’s more the fact that they got caught, received a slap on the wrist, and then kept doing it. I’m honestly more pissed at the NFL in general. If you don’t want cheaters to cheat, start leveling penalties that actually matter. If you slap wrists rather than chopping off hands, don’t come crying to me when you get robbed again.
If the NFL starts losing viewership – aka ad dollars aka cash money – because of the Patriots, expect them to start giving a damn. As it stands, welcome to the Good’ole’Boys club. Beyond that, its not cheating if you do it, get caught, and don’t give a damn about the punishment. Tell Steely McBeam to break out his own video camera and act useful for a while.
And, speaking of Steely McBeam, why the hell is the mascot for the Houston Rockets a giant mouse?
sean
i just want to say…..GO GIANTS!
CFisher
As a life-long Giants fan, I’m going to stay out of this and go watch my ‘Road to the Championship’ DVD. ;)
Andrew
I don’t get why it’s illegal in the first place. It’s perfectly legal to take still pictures of calls and formations during the game and print them out on the sideline (which they do). Increasing the number of pictures to 30 per second and all of a sudden it’s the most evil thing to ever happen in sports?
1fps = perfectly fine
30fps = lifetime ban from football
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
dj spellchecka
as a browns follower i have to say WTF?
in that 2000-2002 period, the browns weren’t any kind of threat to beat the pats. why were they bothering?
Desmond
If those teams didn’t change their signals regularly, they deserved to get stomped by the Pats again and again. And if the rule is really what Seitz claims, it’s a tempest in a teapot.
TheFountainHead
Breaking: Hillary Clinton was BEHIND THE CAMERA!
Incertus
Doesn’t the NFL have rules against allowing people to videotape games from the stands? Otherwise, there’d be a roaring business in bootleg versions of football game video–and don’t laugh, fans are retarded when it comes to buying stuff like that.
TheFountainHead
It makes perfect sense. Look at [Insert Popular First Person Shooter Game Here]! I get 1fps and everyone and their grandmother is going to headshot me and giggle at my corpse. If I get 30fps, though, I’m gonna run around pwning you till Kingdom Come! Clearly, this is a legitimate difference!
Bill Belichick
If it gets John’s panties all knotted up then it was all worth it. Of course we didn’t NEED to do it, at least not with the Steelers. As someone already pointed out, they had Kordell Stewart.
Dork
But if this had happened to the Pats, and they had lost the game…..Lord Christ would the wailing, the bitching, the faux-anger be neverending.
Shorter Pats fans: we won, so get over it (despite we had to break the goddamn rules to do so).
Edmund Dantes
So when are we taking back the Broncos and John Elway’s Super Bowl victories? Convicted Cheaters. Even lost draft picks because of it.
MNPundit
Well first and foremost I hate just about EVERYTHING having to do with PA and probably will until after Obama wins the presidency so you get no sympathy from me.
On the other hand, how about making the Patriots forfeit EVERY SINGLE GAME of the season next year? They don’t even play games so they get no money from that, they get and 0-16 to bookend their record last year, and other teams get a free win from them just like the Patriots got free wins before.
I think what really pisses me off about the Patriots the most was that they cheated and the Mannings still won. The Mannings embody everything I hate. 1) Southern 2) Southern FOOTBALL stars 3) Nothing ever goes wrong for them 4) Eli Manning’s hissy fit about not playing for a losing team,
Mark Prior did that with the Twins when he was going to be drafted and ever since then I have hated people who do that with a passion. Twins got a lot more fucking chances to win a ring than the Cubs didn’t they Markie Mark? Oh what’s that? You’re out of baseball? Too fucking bad.
So long story short, I hate the Mannings and I hate Mark Prior.
joe
Except that there was no way the tapes could have been viewed during the game. They weren’t live feeds, they were videotapes. The accusation is that the signals were videotaped so they could viewed later, in preparation for furture matchups.
rawshark
Get the fuck over it. Pittsburgh post because NE outplayed them that day. Plus Cowher telling his players to book their SB travel plans before the game was played may have been a factor. As we saw this past february, teams don’t play at their best when they expected a ‘stronger’ opponent.
Seitz
Prior never said he wouldn’t sign with the Twins. The Twins just thought they couldn’t afford his asking price. Besides, they were going to take Mauer anyway. He’s a local guy.
Scott de B.
This isn’t news, this has been known for months.
joe
Losing a first round draft pick is a “slap on the wrist?”
There are teams that have been shut out of the playoffs for a decade because their first-round pick didn’t work out.
ThymeZone
Oh Christ, please, every team in every sport engages in this sort of thing at one time or another. No, I’m not condoning it, I am saying, let’s not pretend that because these people got caught that they are somehow outliers.
The New York Giants were stealing signs in 1952 when Bobby Thompson hit the Shot Heard Round the World in 1951.
Sign stealing is a proud and ancient tradition in sports.
Cut the crap and get off the high horse. If the Steelers and the Pirates haven’t been totally typical in this department for their entire histories in their sports, I will eat my Giants (baseball) cap.
Next topic please, this is stupid.
find remedy
Not to mention that the rule against videotaping from the field was enacted by the league in 2005 …
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
It’s OK to cheat, everybody does it? Since when did we turn into a bunch of Republicans?
The Patriots broke the first rule: Don’t get caught. Smack them down so hard even Robert Kraft feels it.
Zifnab
He’s 31st pick and he’s got – arguably – one of the best football teams in NFL history. Yeah, that’s a slap on the wrist.
Davis X. Machina
guys got banned for life from baseball for less.
I’m curious what this refers to. Sign-stealing is an art in baseball, not an offense.
Bill Belichick
I guess I’m missing something though. What exactly, is new with this so-called news? Nothing, as far as I can tell. They already admitted that this is what they were doing. And they were punished.
The real news here is that there’s nothing on the Green Bay pre SB walkthrough. Interesting that no one is talking about that, since that is what was keeping this alive. As near as I can tell either the Boston Herald or Matt Whoever or both are lying.
Josh E.
Hey Pats fans – who has the more recent SB title, the Steelers or the Patsies? Thought so. Now go back to hating black people.
Nathanael Nerode
Here’s a radical idea.
Make it illegal for coaches to give signals to the players during the game.
Make the Quarterback do his actual job and decide the plays! They can’t steal signals if there are no signals and the play is decided in the huddle.
Sports has just gotten stupid.
zeppo
So, does this mean that we can go back and examine the really crappy officiating in the Super Bowl when the Steelers beat the Seahawks?
Scott de B.
It’s OK to cheat, everybody does it?
It’s not OK to cheat, but this is a minor infraction, akin to offensive holding or wearing an unapproved logo. The punishment was certainly adequate.
ThymeZone
Whoops, not only did I write a mangled sentence, I managed to name the same year with two different numbers.
Anyway, the Giants probably had a guy in the outfield sending stolen signs to the dugout in the famous game against the Dodgers.
Sign stealing? Oh yeah. As much a part of baseball as the spitball and the spike slide at second base. Love it.
Glyph2112
If it wasn’t a benefit to them, then why would they film the signals? So it obviously was, and it shows a history of cheating. Their win over the Rams in 2000 is now suspect, as well as their win over the Eagles. Both were close games and could have hinged on the extra advantage of knowing what was coming at them and being able to check off to another play. Not every team cheats, some people actually have integrity.
Cassidy
Ummmm…what do the Mannings’ have to do with the Patriots?
rawshark
You mean the SB you reached because Indy gave you the AFC title game? You mean the SB you barely won against a weak Seattle team? Is my comment as meaningless as yours?
First. Not the QBs job to run the offense or decide plays.
Second. QBs have a radio in their helmets, they don’t get signals from coaches.
Third. The Pats were taping defensive coach signals.
Otherwise great idea!
John S.
Karma, thy name be the New York Giants!
And rightly so.
DFD
As a Bears fan I couldn’t give a shit about the Steelers but I agree that the Patriots and Belichick are pieces of shit. Among my reasons for loathing them are Rodney “HGH” Harrison and Randy “Early Release” Moss.
rawshark
How is scouting cheating?
From watching football I notice Shawn Alexander runs nto a crowd, turns his back and sits. Can I not use that in my gameplan against whatever team he plays for next? Is it cheating because I got that by taping on the field instead of from the crowd or pressbox?
Get real. The Pats have been kicking ass against all your teams. They had good players who made plays when they had to. Story over.
sean
except the Giants. HA!
PaulW
Cheating is cheating, akin to lying, akin to stealing, akin to the little murders of kindness and fairness we seek in the world.
If videotaping other teams’ play-calling and practice drills isn’t cheating, why not just hand over their playbooks? Why not have the QB shout over to the linebacker, “Hey dude, we’re going for a hitch pass to the Z receiver next!”
Here’s an example. Bucs vs. Raiders in the Super Bowl. The Bucs coach, Jon Gruden, was just the HC for Oakland the previous year. He knows their QB, he knows their offense. During practice drills, Gruden goes in as the practice squad QB, playing as Gannon, barking out plays and adjustments in practically the same way Gannon does in real life. It gets the Bucs defense waaaay prepared to see pretty much every Raiders’ playcall coming a mile away. Fast forward to the Super Bowl game. The Bucs defense makes a mockery of the Raiders’ offense. There’s game tape of John Lynch shouting out to his teammates, “Sluggo C! Sluggo C formation!” And sure enough the Bucs force an interception with Lynch crowing “I called it! Sluggo C, just like in practice!” and it leading to 5 INTs and a record 3 INTs returned for touchdowns. The Bucs’ beatdown of the Raiders was one of the epic blowouts in Super Bowl history.
Now, was it cheating for Gruden to do that? Actually, No. Because the Raiders KNEW he was their head coach the season before, and they should have known better than to run a playbook he had knowledge of. It was Callahan’s fault they didn’t mix up the plays or the formations. You’ll notice Callahan hasn’t stayed on as a Head Coach at the places he’d gone to after that debacle.
What I’m pointing out is, for teams that AREN’T aware that their plays are being scrutinized, that sort of stuff IS cheating, and a team prepared for playcalls they normally wouldn’t have seen in game film (such as the Pats) has a huge advantage over the other team that’s unaware their calls and formations have been stolen/taped/hacked (that would be the Jets, Steelers, Colts, Rams, and pretty much everybody else).
rawshark
And Baltimore. HA!
I was talking about how they played the past 7 years but still you’re right. The Giants were the best team on the field that day.
If I was a Bears fan I would also hate any team that showed compatency on the field or that drafted players that addressed a need. Keep thinking you’re hatred isn’t projection tho. It’s healthier for you.
sashal
silly me, I was under impression that football is about which teams and coaches are better on the field with or without signals
lutton
You folks who thing the tapings were not beneficial are in severe denial. Taping signals is done so future signal calls can be interpreted and countered. Knowing the true intent(s) of a seemingly ambigous-looking lineup, even on just a couple plays, easily translates into enought scoring to change the outcome.
The other aspect to consider here, besides the outcome of the games themselves, is the effect on betting. It’s a bizzaro-world form of point shaving. But this guy Walsh is no Junius Kellogg. Go Jaspers!
DFD
rawshark
I don’t deny that the Bears have issues but at least they have a demonstrated desire to employ players and coaches with character and integrity. The same can’t be said for the Pats.
Elliott
I thought you all were dead. Wasn’t the end around in the last AFC Championship Pats Steelers matchup a mercy killing?
Timb
I know it’s a football discussion, but Mark Prior pitches for the Padres (he’s on the DL rehabbing from his shoulder injury). He’s making a million dollars this year to pitch for the Pads.
Secondly, as an Indianapolis resident I must be more aware of the constant criticism of Peyton Manning for his failure to win any big games prior to 2006. Right now, his career is tied with Trent Dilfer for Super Bowl rings.
joe
I’m not denying that stealing signals helps a team, just that taping signals helps the team THAT DAY.
The fact that the Pats taped signals during the Superbowl did nothing to influence those Superbowls.
binzinerator
And within this thread is contained thumbnail sketch of nearly every rationalization, every gambit, every defense — and every valid criticism — of the Bush Era modus operandi.
kwAwk
Bill Belichick Says:
I guess I’m missing something though. What exactly, is new with this so-called news? Nothing, as far as I can tell. They already admitted that this is what they were doing. And they were punished.
_______________________
What is new is that when the Patriots were punished for this video taping incident, they assured the league that they had come clean and reported everything they had done.
I beleive that they were indeed warned by Roger Goodell that if it came out that they had lied about anything and there was anything that they had not told him that the punishment would be quite severe.
So we’ll have to wait and see if this is indeed a new revelation which violates their assurances to the commissioner.
Lit3Bolt
Fixed. Why not? Everyone does it, so it’s fair!
Anyone who defends this behavior is a cockgobbler. But then Belichick’s cock is so tasty, isn’t it?
Frankly, every one of your equivocations and rationalizations to defend the Pats behavior is bullshit and displays a fundamental misunderstanding about football. But it’s ALL WORTH IT TO DO SOME FUCKING FANBOY GLOATING, isn’t it? Fuck decency and integrity in the goat-ass, I want to win and win big!
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/patriots_season_perfect_for_rest
Some quality reading for in-between Belichick cock-sucking refreshment.
Bill Belichick
“This is consistent with what the Patriots had admitted they had been doing, consistent with what we already knew,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told The Associated Press.
Jason
Hey John, I have an idea.
As a Pats fan, I’ll lobby to have the Pats SuperBowls stripped(because of cheating) if you lobby to get the 70’s Steelers SuperBowls revoked (because of cheating). Steriods were prevelant in the Steeler locker room and many have come out and admitted it.
If you cheat, you get your Superbowl revoked. Sorry Franco, Lynn, Terry and the Steel Curtain. Give us back your rings!
Mike
The Patriots big score in the 2nd half of that game was off a blocked Field Goal that was run back for a touchdown. If they managed to block that kick by stealing defensive hand signals, then I guess you’d have a point.
The Steelers spent years crying sour grapes over this game, if it hadn’t been for two ‘fluke’ special teams TD’s, they would have won. Whine whine whine.