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I'm going to guess Matt Walsh plays an excellent game of poker.
For weeks we expected Walsh, the former New England Patriots videographer/rat to produce some sort of blockbuster material. Videotapes of a Super Bowl walkthrough. Massive new evidence of cheating. Pictures of Roger Clemens and a country western singer. Ozzie Guillen with a blowup doll. Something.
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| Could Bill Belichick have handled the episode better? Yes, but same goes for the NFL, media and fans. (AP) |
Basically, nothing.
Garbage.
The NFL acknowledged receiving details about Walsh's eight videotapes, which show more of the same stuff. Bill Belichick taped signals of opposing teams. We knew that already. Thanks, dude.
"This is consistent with what the Patriots had admitted they had been doing, consistent with what we already knew," league spokesman Greg Aiello told the Associated Press.
Walsh pulled the greatest bluff in sports history.
And you know what? The league knew Walsh was bluffing all along. Initially, I believed the opposite. I thought the overly protracted negotiations between the NFL and Walsh were the two entities simply trying to out-douche one another.
It turns out the NFL was outsmarting Walsh and many of us as well. The league knew he had large caches of nothing. This explains why the NFL went through this dog and pony show of negotiations with Walsh. Those talks would in the end make the league look like it completed a thorough negotiation with Walsh and thus the NFL embarked on a complete search for the truth.
This is what will happen next: When Walsh and Roger Goodell meet next week, Walsh will tell the NFL what it already knew. Goodell will call a press conference, blast Walsh as a bluffing jackass and declare the matter over.
And it will be over. The issue will be deader than Richard Nixon.
Spygate will officially die next week.
Let's be clear. This column isn't tacit approval of what Belichick did. He was wrong and his attitude about the whole thing was wrong.
This is, however, disapproval of how everyone has handled Spygate, including Walsh, the NFL, the media and fans.
The media: Because some of us used this situation to go after Belichick because we don't like him personally.
The fans: Ditto.
The NFL: Because their negotiations with Walsh should have ended months ago.
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Walsh made one of the bigger mistakes by refusing to clarify the most important portion of this story. When the Boston Herald reported that a Super Bowl walkthrough was recorded by the Patriots, Walsh could have issued a statement through his lawyer, saying he did have incriminating tapes but they weren't of any walkthrough.
But Walsh didn't. He let that apparently erroneous fact marinate in the media for months. And marinate it did -- exploding into one of the more compelling sports stories in decades.
Then when it was time to turn over the tapes, Walsh's lawyer states: We don't know nothin' 'bout no stinking walkthroughs.
Walsh didn't do this by accident. I think, for whatever reason, he wanted Belichick and his old team to suffer.
(By the way, the last thing we need to hear is Chris Mortensen admonishing the Herald. Mort is a solid journalist and a good guy but he should know better. Every journalist has made at least one significant reporting mistake -- including Mort.)
The potential of the Patriots taping a Super Bowl walkthrough was the polonium, the nuclear trigger, for this entire story. It was the most compelling allegation and Walsh knew, or should have known, it was false. He or his attorney should have immediately corrected the record.
What I'm most curious about is Walsh. At some point, he'll sit down and do a Barbara Walters, Oprah or Bryant Gumbel confessional interview. I want to know his motivation for holding onto these tapes for all these years.
I don't buy the Patriots' explanation that Walsh is a bitter ex-employee. Walsh's reasons are more complex. I won't analyze from afar. Besides, I have used up all of my energy trying to figure Doyel out.
Like it or not, Spygate is dead.
Not sure what you Hatriots are going to do now.
