FOXBOROUGH - Patriots coach Bill Belichick and vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli broke their silence regarding taping procedures and suggestions of improper conduct from former employee Matt Walsh yesterday, with Belichick saying he "couldn't pick Matt Walsh out of a lineup" and Pioli noting that part of the reason for Walsh's firing was because of him secretly tape-recording conversations.The Boston Herald, citing an anonymous source, reported Feb. 2 that the Patriots had taped the Rams' walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. The Patriots and NFL strongly denied that story, and Belichick further addressed it yesterday. "In my entire coaching career, I've never seen another team's practice film prior to playing that team," he said. "I have never authorized, or heard of, or even seen in any way, shape, or form any other team's walkthrough. We don't even film our own. We don't even want to see ourselves do anything, that's the pace that it's at. Regardless, I've never been a part of that." Belichick added that in his "entire coaching career, I have never filmed a walkthrough, our own. I've never been on a staff that has filmed a walkthrough. I'm talking about when I was a head coach. As an assistant, I've never seen a head coach film a walkthrough the day before a game." Pioli said Walsh was terminated in January 2003 after he discovered Walsh was "secretly tape-recording conversations between him and me." Pioli said he learned of the recording because "two other employees saw him doing it, and I checked after, and heard it on the tape myself." Walsh has hinted he has materials that could prove damaging to the Patriots, and Levy said Walsh will turn them over to the NFL if the league provides him complete indemnification, protecting Walsh from being sued. But Levy said the NFL's most recent offer leaves Walsh unprotected legally against unfounded or unproven allegations.  In the days leading up to this year's Super Bowl, Walsh's potential role in the taping became a hot topic. Yesterday, Pioli detailed the work Walsh did in the personnel department. "He had come from video, so the first few months his job was to make highlight tapes of draft-eligible players, guys who were going to be free agents," he said. "It's like the entry-level position that we have all the scouting assistants in. It's essentially the same job that I did 15 years ago, which was making copies, picking people up at the airport, data entry, more of the highlight tapes of the players, the draft-eligible guys."Pioli said reports that indicated Walsh was an "area scout" were incorrect. Their relationship ended abruptly, according to Pioli. "The job he was doing, there were two other guys doing it, so essentially the work he was doing wasn't up to the same level as the other people, in my opinion. However, I found out he was secretly tape recording our conversations and he was fired," he said. Asked if he confronted Walsh for an explanation, Pioli said: "There was never a confrontation. He was just released."

So Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli finally defended themselves against Spygate yesterday.  Not surprisingly everything they said makes perfect sense.   I couldn’t cut and paste the entire article but Belichick basically said what any rational unbiased intelligent person already knew.   The Pats made an honest mistake and really shouldn’t have been punished at all.   Belichick taped other teams signals to get an edge just like how you study opposing players stances, cadence etc.   He didn’t think he was violating the rule because the rule states that you can’t use the film to gain an advantage during the same game you are taping which the Pats never did.  Instead they were using the film for future matchups.   Again if they knew they were cheating than why wouldn’t they hide the cameraman as opposed to having him sit there in broad daylight against a team whose head coach hates the Pats and knows that we tape?   I mean the Jets coaches were waving to our cameraman.  Only a total moron would put the cameraman in the middle of the sidelines if they thought this was illegal.  And I think even the strongest Belichick detractors would admit he’s not a moron.   As far the Matt Walsh thing goes  it was nice to finally see him exposed as the fraud everybody already knew he was.   Basically as I stated when it happened, Matt Walsh is a lowlife scumbag who sucked at his job and got fired for being a devious incompetent fool.    He found a reporter who had his own agenda in John Tomase and together they made a mockery of the Superbowl.   In my mind both Tomase and Walsh are equally disgusting forms of human pond scum.   And to be honest I wouldn’t put it past Walsh to have taped the Rams fluff practice on his own accord.   It sounds like something he would do to try and score brownie points to make up for the fact that he sucks at life.  But there is no way the directive came from Belichick.  Because as Belichick points out, nobody tapes fluff practice in the NFL.  And it’s ludicrous to even insinuate that the Pats would do something like this because everybody knows it serves no purpose.  In any event I’m guessing this Matt Walsh thing will eventually go away, because he refuses to go on the record unless somebody pays his legal fees for when he gets sued for lying.   And you can only find so many John Tomase’s who are willing to publish total garbage from anonymous sources just to help their own career.     Still it’s a sad day in America when an entry level bag boy can cause this much trouble just because he is mad he got fired from his job. 

PS – I keep waiting for some Anti Matt Walsh stories to be sent to me.  I want to light this guy up so bad I can taste it.