INDIANAPOLIS - Commissioner Roger Goodell said yesterday the NFL is making progress toward reaching an agreement that would allow former Patriots employee Matt Walsh to detail what he knows, if anything, about the team's violation of league rules on videotaping.
"We very much want to talk to him," Goodell said yesterday from the site of this week's scouting combine. "We've made some progress on the conditions that he's asked for, how he would speak to us, and what the conditions are with what he's going to be asked to do and what he wants us to be able to do when he makes his testimony. I expect that that will happen shortly. We're making progress."
Walsh, a former Patriots video assistant, has intimated he has materials that could be damaging to the club, including a tape of the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. The Boston Herald, citing an anonymous source, reported Feb. 2 that the Patriots taped the walkthrough prior to their win over St. Louis, but coach Bill Belichick told the Globe last Sunday he has never seen another team's practice film prior to a game, never taped a walkthrough during his coaching career, not even those of his own teams, and said he couldn't pick Walsh out of a lineup.
Walsh has said a confidentiality agreement with New England after the team terminated his employment in 2003 prevents him from talking without facing legal repercussions.
He has been seeking full indemnification to talk.
Walsh's attorney, Michael Levy, said he had not spoken with anybody from the NFL yesterday.
"I sent them my proposal last Thursday. I spoke to Gregg Levy, outside counsel for the NFL, [Tuesday] and I have not heard back from the league or any of its lawyers about my proposal."
Michael Levy declined to elaborate on the Tuesday discussion. He has previously said the NFL's proposal, which he received Feb 11, would leave Walsh "completely unprotected against an unproven allegation."
The NFL has maintained that Walsh will enjoy indemnity as long as he tells the truth and turns over whatever materials he has.
That has led some, including Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, to question whether the NFL really wants Walsh to talk.
Goodell said he's not surprised that Specter, who requested and received a meeting with the commissioner regarding the Patriots' video violations and the subsequent punishment, which was a total of $750,000 in fines for Belichick and the team and the loss of its first-round draft pick, has continued to push the issue.
Specter has been critical of Goodell's handling of the case, specifically the decision to destroy the six tapes and notes, dating to 2002, the league seized from the Patriots.
"I didn't expect he would change his view after our meeting," said Goodell.
Today is the day
Today marks the deadline by which teams can place the franchise tag on players, and if the Patriots use the tag, it is expected to be on wide receiver Randy Moss. Moss's contract expired after this past season, and both sides have expressed their desire to reach an extension. Yet one wrinkle to the process is that an extension cannot be finalized until Feb. 29, the official start of the 2008 season, because players are only allowed to have one restructure/extension in a league year. Moss had restructured his contract last May to consummate his trade to New England. Even though both sides are presumably working toward an extension, the Patriots might see the tag, which would be a one-year deal at $7.84 million, as a way to protect themselves from another club swooping in to make a bid for Moss. Placing the tag on Moss would limit his ability to seek other offers because interested clubs would have to surrender two first-round draft choices to sign him. Moss's agent, Tim DiPiero, could not be reached for comment.Lots to talk about
Indianapolis Colts president Bill Polian, who serves on the competition committee, said the Patriots' taping procedures did not come up during a meeting yesterday with league video directors. Yet Polian did acknowledge that members of the competition committee are planning to discuss a revived proposal - to be voted on at the owners' meetings in March - that would allow a defensive player to have a communication device in his helmet. "There are lots of technical questions that were raised that have yet to be answered, and we need the answers," he said. A proposal for defensive headsets was narrowly defeated last year, with Goodell noting that opponents of the plan were concerned that there are more substitutions on the defensive side, which made it possible that the player with the communication device might not be on the field at all times.Collier on the outs?
The buzz here is that the Patriots and secondary coach Joel Collier have parted ways, although that could not be confirmed by team officials last night. Collier joined the Patriots in 2005. For teams looking to make changes on their staffs, specifically on defense, Dom Capers remains one of the top candidates available . . . Linebacker Rosevelt Colvin's recovery from a season-ending foot injury has gone smoothly, according to a league source, and the foot shouldn't be a factor for him in 2008 . . . Free agent receiver Marty Booker, who met with Patriots officials at Gillette Stadium Tuesday, left town without a contract. Booker is speaking with a few other clubs, and the possibility has not been ruled out that he would sign with New England . . . Former Patriot Lawyer Milloy is in town, serving on a player advisory council that met with Goodell yesterday.
