Following reports of what the tapes Matt Walsh handed over to the League, my view is... the same.
SpyGate still isn't as big a deal as it is has been made out to be. People say that the Pat's three titles should be tainted. Why? I've read a good number of comments on various sports sites, and only a very small percentage of the commenters even mentioned the 1998-99 Broncos. They were fined $1 million in addition to losing a third-rounder for violating an NFL rule regarding the salary cap.
I haven't seen anyone who is demanding Denver hand over their Lombardi Trophy from that year. Perhaps the desire to see New England severely punished stems from the extreme dislike many people have towards Boston fans, but folks are calling for all three championships to be forfeited when the only video Walsh handed over from the Playoffs was during the 2002 AFC Championship Game; none of them contained the Rams walkthrough.
And there is still no evidence that these tapes were actually used during the game(s). Until somebody can prove that theory, then there is really no reason to continue whining about the scandal. Just to remind everyone: The rule the Patriots broke wasn't instituted until last offseason!
The only instance where they are known to have actually violated the League mandate was in Week 1 of last season against the Jets. Note that the final score in that contest was 38-14 NE. That leads to another question, why would Belichick tape a former coach of his who most likely knew about this procedure.. but I don't know that anyone (except BB) is ever going to be able to answer that query.
However, I still feel that Roger Goodell should have handled this better. Especially when he was dealing with the tapes New England handed over in September. Why destroy them?! Why not show them to the public, put everyone's mind at ease about the ordeal and move on? Fans want to know if New England produced
all of their tapes. Goodell originally said the Pats gave him material from the end of '06-'07 through the preseason of the 2007-08 season.
He then stated that the Patriots organization (Read: Belichick) admitted to taping all the way back to the beginning of his tenure in 2000. One of the main reasons this problem still exists is because of the lack of tapes reportedly turned in from before 2006.
He has now gotten Senator Arlen Specter (Who is obviously very focused on taking actions that will benefit the people he was elected to represent) on the list of politicians who are sticking their noses into the issues of the sports world.
And as I said in my earlier "SpyGate" post, Bill Belichick should
not have won Coach of the Year. He violated a League rule and should have been disqualified from receiving any awards.
Hopefully this is going to end up being the last post I have to type about this incident as it is not all that important. It's just the fact that such widely-read sites as ESPN.com have continued to bombard us with worthless 'updates' about the situation, rather than giving us some fresh info to debate.
One final note: I guess I have to revoke my final statement regarding Super Bowl XXXIX in the aforementioned "
SpyGate" post. One of the tapes sent to League headquarters contained video footage of offensive signals from an October '01 game against the Dolphins. So my comment there was apparently incorrect (Although correct at the time).
