Walsh reaches deal to talk to NFL
Former Pats video assistant will meet with commissioner Goodell on May 13
The NFL and former Patriots employee Matt Walsh reached a legal agreement today that will finally allow Walsh, who has intimated he has additional information and materials regarding the Patriots' videotaping procedures, to come forward and reveal what he knows.
Walsh, who now lives in Hawaii, will meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in Goodell's New York office on May 13 and, according to terms of the agreement, must turn over any documentation, including videotapes, he has in his possession to the league on or before May 8. Under the negotiated agreement, Walsh may retain a single copy of whatever material he delivers to the league.
In exchange for Walsh's cooperation, the league agreed to provide Walsh with legal indemnification and promised that neither the league nor the Patriots would sue him.
"I am pleased that we now have an agreement that provides Mr. Walsh with appropriate legal protections," said his attorney, Michael N. Levy of the Washington, D.C.-based firm McKee Nelson. "Mr. Walsh is looking forward to providing the NFL with the materials he has and telling the NFL what he knows."
What exactly Walsh knows has hung over the NFL and the Patriots since media reports began to surface earlier this year that he had additional information about the team's videotaping practices. Walsh had initially claimed that a confidentiality agreement with the Patriots barred him from speaking, but it was later learned that Walsh was bound by no such agreement.
Walsh's intimations extended the "Spygate" saga, which began on Sept. 9, when the Patriots were caught illegally videotaping the defensive signals of the New York Jets at Giants Stadium in both clubs' season opener.
The NFL responded swiftly, punishing the Patriots in a Sept. 13 ruling by Goodell that fined the team $250,000, head coach Bill Belichick $500,000 -- the maximum allowed under the leagues by-laws and constitutions -- and docked the team a first-round draft pick (No. 31 overall) in Saturday's NFL Draft. The league also demanded the Patriots turn over all tapes and notes related to their practice of filming other teams' signals.
At the time the league said the penalty was for the totality of the team's actions and that Goodell reserved the right to revisit the penalty if additional information came to light.
On Feb. 2, the day before the Patriots' 17-14 upset loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII, the Boston Herald, citing an unnamed source, reported that the Patriots had taped the St. Louis Rams walkthrough prior to the franchise's first Super Bowl title, a shocking 20-17 upset of the heavily favored Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002.
Both the Patriots and the NFL, which was already under pressure from Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter for destroying the tapes and notes it forced the Patriots to turn over to them, forcefully denied the allegation. Belichick told the Globe in February that he had never seen a tape of another team's practice prior to playing that team and that in his entire coaching career he had never filmed a walkthrough, not even one for his own team.
However, the specter of Walsh, a former Patriots video assistant who was fired by the team in 2003, hovered over both the Patriots and league, prolonging "Spygate."
But 45 days after the league and Walsh's attorney announced on March 9 that "substantial progress" had been made in negotiations that would allow Walsh to come forward and nine weeks after Goodell told reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis that he expected an agreement to be reached "shortly", one was finally forged.
It remains to be seen whether it was worth the wait and whether Walsh can provide closure for the Patriots and the NFL.
"Commissioner Goodell imposed substantial discipline on Coach Belichick and the club as a result of that practice," read an NFL-issued statement on the agreement with Walsh. "The interview with Mr. Walsh will seek to determine whether he has any new information about that videotaping practice or other possible violations of league rules."
