Bob Hohler on Matt Walsh
From yesterday’s Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2008/03/10/to_some_a_vindictive_videotaper/?page=3
Hohler assembles a lot of things we’ve heard previously about Matt Walsh/WalkthroughGate - and perhaps adds a few things we were not aware of.
It’ll be interesting to see if Walsh (and/or his attorneys) feel the need to play a PR game and address some of the “unkind” aspects regarding Walsh in this piece or not. I’m not sure that’s necessary myself - since it comes down to one thing (for me, anyway):
If he has damaging tape and can prove he did it under the Pats direction (and/or the Pats benefited from it in some way, even if he initially did it on his own for some odd reason)… then he’ll get a book deal and make the talk show circuit and will have taken down the Belicheck Dynasty.
If he doesn’t have the damaging tape he’s alluded to previously (or its somehow determined to not be nearly as damaging as he’s alluded to previously), then he’ll be lambasted as the “vindictive videotaper” that this story’s headline suggests.
I suppose one other possibility is that he has tape of a walkthrough (and/or whatever else that would be considered “new” to the Spygate probe), but somehow the Pats (and perhaps others) prove that he did it on his own… which makes as much sense to me as suggesting that McNamee injected Clemens with PEDs without Clemens knowledge. Sure… I suppose its possible - but I admit that I’d have a tough time believing it. I suppose he could’ve done it on his own, thinking it would help his employers.. then he never gave it to them, but after being fired… held onto it to get back at them in the future… or something.
It is hard to imagine Walsh putting himself in a position to be universally embarassed if he doesn’t have the Goods - and if he does, I suspect Goodell’s reputation takes a hit since this really only came up when an Eagles fan who happens to serve in Congress pushed the issue to grab some headlines during Super Bowl week.
Anyhow, it seems like league is basically going to tell Walsh that he’s covered as long as he doesn’t lie - but if he lies, he’s screwed. If the article is to be believed, Goodell and the Patriots (separately) looked into these allegations previously and expect that no damning evidence exists (or at least none that can be tied to the Pats as an organization, if that’s somehow possible).
Regardless, hopefully this will be brought to a close soon - one way or another. If Walsh if nothing but hot air, then it’ll (hopefully finally) go away. If not, then Belicheck’s screwed - and so are the Pats. Naturally, I freely admit to hoping for the former over the latter, but either way - I’ll be happy when I can go back to the days when I’d only hear Arlen Specter’s name as I scanned past C-Span on my way to ESPN Classic.