NFL calls Jets assistant Brian Daboll back for second SpyGate interview BY RICH CIMINI DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...rian Daboll back for second SpyGate interview Tuesday, May 13th 2008, 5:41 PM After 3-1/2 months of dragging the Patriots and the NFL through the post-SpyGate mud, former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh didn't dish any new or incriminating dirt on his old team Tuesday in his highly anticipated meeting with Roger Goodell. Goodell said Walsh told him he had no knowledge of a Rams' walkthrough tape from the eve of the Super Bowl in February 2002. Goodell, claiming Walsh's disclosures about the Patriots' long-running spying tactics confirmed what he already knew, said he's not planning any further sanctions against the team. But SpyGate isn't over yet. The league is planning to re-interview former Patriots defensive assistant Brian Daboll, currently the Jets' quarterbacks coach, it was later learned. Daboll emerged as a key figure because of questions surrounding the infamous walkthrough. In his meeting with Goodell, Walsh admitted he was on the sideline during the Rams' walkthrough - in Patriots garb, no less - preparing his equipment for the game. Walsh told Goodell he didn't tape the session and wasn't instructed to spy, per se, but he revealed that Daboll quizzed him afterward. Walsh told Daboll he noticed that star running back Marshall Faulk was returning kickoffs, league attorney Gregg Levy said. (Faulk did, in fact, return one kickoff in the game.) Daboll also asked Walsh about the Rams' offensive formations, particularly the role of the tight end, according to Levy, who said the Walsh-Daboll conversation lasted less than 10 minutes. "What Matt Walsh told us was inconsistent with our prior understanding," league spokesman Greg Aiello said in an e-mail. "Brian Daboll did not tell us that." Daboll, who was interviewed several months ago (as was Jets coach Eric Mangini, another former Pats assistant), said in a statement released by the Jets that the league "has requested to speak to me again." He said he was "completely truthful and forthcoming" in his first interview. Goodell, in his news conference, revealed that Walsh was present at the walkthrough, but he didn't mention the Daboll incident. Shortly afterward, Levy told reporters about it. Even though the Patriots seemingly benefited from inside knowledge, league officials said no rules were broken and no action will be taken against the Patriots. But it raised yet another question in the controversy. The next chapter will occur today in Washington, D.C., where Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) will hold a noon news conference to discuss SpyGate. Specter, critical of the league's handling of the matter, met for three hours Tuesday with Walsh, who flew to D.C. immediately after his three-hour, 15-minute meeting with Goodell. Walsh had no comment upon emerging from the league office. The NFL allowed reporters to view portions of the eight videotapes that Walsh stole from the Patriots and handed over to the league. Each tape showed illegal taping of opposing signals. Goodell said Walsh told him the Patriots never culled information from the tapes in the same game. In his meeting with Goodell, Walsh referred to Belichick as "the man behind the curtain," saying he never reported directly to the coach. Walsh didn't deliver the smoking gun that would've nailed his former boss, but he told Goodell about two possible violations - a player on injured reserve illegally practicing in 2001 and players scalping eight to 12 Super Bowl tickets. The league will investigate the matters. The Patriots, feeling vindicated, released a "We-told-you-so" statement that said, in part: "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 ... is absolutely false."
Scalping tickets? This seems a little overboard. I am sure they are not the first players to do so. And how can you prove someone practiced in 2001? I hate to say it, but it is getting a little ridiculous now.
Oh enough of the spygate nonsense. It's old. All it does is make some look jealous of the Pats winning all these years.
They should just end this nonsense, i mean the league will do nothing to the pats. The NFL will never allow one of its most marketable team. Face the facts gentlemen, they will not punish the pats, they gave them their slap in the wrist and that is all. The cheaters win
Spygate Investigation "End this nonsense???" Yeah right. And we should have ended the "nonsense" when it appeared that Richard Nixon sent burglars to the Watergate Hotel. (Almost no one on this board understands how the investigation led to finding out that Nixon was guilty of so much more than a "third-rate burglary." His actions threatened the integrity of our way of life! Which is why he was removed! ) I have a young nephew who idolizes Bill Belichek. He's a big football fan and wants to grow up to be just like Mr. Bill. Are the rest of you comfortable with your kids and young relatives idolizing a scumbag like Bill Belichek? Are there any true New York Jets left on this message board? Mr. Belichek is a cheater and a liar who broke the rules of the game and deserves to have all of his laurels and awards taken away. I am so glad now that this jerk never became our head coach.
The league is covering up for the patsies, Walsh was bought off, and Kraft owns the commissioner, and you say they should end this nonsense??? I hope congress forces the league's hand, and exposes this for the racket it is once and for all.
I can understand why Pats fans want this to end, but unless you are happy with the idea that the NFL could go the way of pro wrestling, the tarnish Belichik has put on the league's reputation needs to be removed.
Jet Coach Re-Interviewed By NFL .. The following is a statement from the NFL regarding the story that Matt Walsh told them about the Rams' walkthrough practice and speaking with former Patriots assistant Brian Daboll: "Our security department re-interviewed Brian Daboll on Wednesday and he has no recollection of a conversation with Matt Walsh about the Rams? walk-through practice. "Even if such a conversation occurred, it would not be a violation of NFL rules. Matt Walsh was authorized to be in the stadium to perform his job duties along with other members of the Patriots? video department, members of the Rams? video department, and other people preparing for the Super Bowl. "Mr. Walsh told the commissioner that he was wearing Patriots? attire at the time and did not conduct himself in a clandestine manner. He said that he saw Rams employees while he was there and also was on the sidelines. He stated clearly to the commissioner that nobody from the Patriots requested or directed him to observe or report on the Rams? walk-through."
as much as i am NOT A FAN of gov't getting involved in sports i also hope that specter turns the screws on both goodell and the patriots. i really think its a possibility that walsh was told what to not say. my real issue is goodell, he is really beginning to become a pain in the ass and i really do not care at all for the job he is doing. its definitely becoming nbaish in the way that the league wants certain teams really "personalities" to do well. there are a tremendous amount of improprieties going on here from the patsies and what they did, denied and continued to do. what they probably have done that nobody knows about and what they plan to continue to do into the future. all the while lying and making themselves out to be the smart guys and stand up guys. hell just the fact that they havent taken care of a single one of their own free agents is a bit annoying about them. goodell and the commish office has some splainin to do as well. there have just been too many things that they have done, and specter laid quite a few of them out in a press conference the other day. that just dont sit right with me, i just dont get a warm and fuzzy that the league is in good hands. rather i get the feeling that the league is in the hands of a scumbag power hungry, willing to put men out of their livelyhoods and string them along, while at the same time forgiving 'cheating' on the game which he oversees.
Benefit Derived from Cheating Many Patsy fans are clinging to the defense that, even assuming the Pats cheated (which is no longer in dispute), they did not derive any competitive advantage. This half baked, knee jerk defensive reasoning stinks like hot garbage. As evidence, besides common sense, i present this ESPN snippet. Walsh also told the Times he was hired in 1999 and first filmed a game for New England in the 2000 preseason, against Tampa Bay. "Once I had done it for the first game, and I kind of understood a little bit of the process of how it was going, I actually asked one of our quarterbacks if the information that I provided was beneficial in any way," Walsh said. "He said, 'Actually, probably about 75 percent of the time, Tampa Bay ran the defense we thought they were going to run. If not more.'" Cheatriot fans are in denial, and this reaction unfortunately is basic human nature. When one is confronted with facts that do not fit or are contrary to ones beliefs or ingrained perceptions, they tend to deny, lie, difuse, bargain, equivocate, and/or place blame elsewhere. The bottom line is this. New England cheated and this cheating granted them a competitive advantage over the course of almost a decade. This does mean their team is not good a football. They are a great team. However, the NFL is such a competitive league, where the old addage that a team can win on "any given sunday" is proven to be true every week, such a competitive advantage derived by the Pats improprieties IS surely enough to make the difference between winning and losing. I therefore draw these conclusions: 1. Pats Cheated. 2. Pats franchise is disgraced. 3. Pat Dynasty* is forever tainted (if you live outside of New England of course) 4. Goodell made the nixonian mistake of letting the coverup get bigger than the crime. 5. Belichoke is an adultering, lying, cheating, wretch of humanity who happens to be a good coach 6. Jets 10-6 in 08! :gpc:ats_suck:
