GetCha PopCorn Ready: Walsh on HBO Friday..

May 14, 2008

Walsh to speak at last - on HBO

HBO has just sent out an announcement saying that it will have the first interview with former Patriots' video assistant Matt Walsh on this Friday's edition of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

Andrea Kremer snagged the interview with Walsh, who was interviewed by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter on Tuesday but did not answer any questions from media.

Some excerpts from the interview, provided by HBO:

Walsh, who served an internship in the Patriots media relations office before joining a new supervisor in the team’s video group in 1999, recalls being asked to make the switch:

MATT WALSH: “I said, ‘I’ll be honest with you, I really don’t know anything about video.’ He said, ‘That’s okay, we’ll teach you everything you need to know.’ “
ANDREA KREMER: “Boy, did they.”

Walsh says that knowledge of and participation in the video spying/signal stealing operation began at the top levels of the coaching staff — and extended to the team itself. He recalls a conversation he had with a Patriots player after the first game of the 2000 regular season. At the time, Patriots were not an elite team and Tampa Bay was on its way to the playoffs.

MATT WALSH: “I had spoken with one of our quarterbacks, uh, that said, he was called into Coach Belichick’s office shortly before the Tampa Bay game. In the office was Ernie Adams, Charlie Weis, and Coach Belichick. They closed the door, Charlie said to him, “You know, we’ve got tape of the Buccaneer’s coaches defensive signals. What we’re going to do is have you learn this, then we’re going to have you next to Charlie on the sideline, when he’s calling in the play to Drew [Bledsoe, the starting quarterback], over the coach to quarterback communication system. Drew’s got the, the earpiece in the helmet, and you're going to tell Charlie the defense that’s being called, and we’re going to relay the information, or use that in calling the play into Drew.” Um, the quarterback, you know, later told me that within two to three seconds of when [Tampa Bay defensive coordinator] Monte Kiffin sent a play call into [Tampa Bay safety] John Lynch, Drew Bledsoe had it in his helmet.”

Walsh says that a Patriots quarterback also told him that the spying effort had yielded remarkable success.

MATT WALSH: “After the first game when we played the Buccaneers in the first season, after the tapes would have already been utilized, and I went up to one of our quarterbacks, because, you know, running the offense, I figured the quarterback might know something about this. I said, you know, was this, was the footage that I shot of the opposing coaches’ signals, you know, any use for you guys? Did it help at all? And one of the quarterbacks told me, he said, probably about seventy-five percent of the time Tampa Bay ran the defense that we thought they were going to run.”

Walsh suggests that Bill Belichick has not owned up to his responsibility in this affair, or admitted his true familiarity with Matt Walsh and his actions.

MATT WALSH: “He was, he was always friendly, you know, when we talked. Um, cordial, he, him and his wife Debbie, bought us a Christmas gift in 2001.”
ANDREA KREMER: “So how does that give with Bill Belichick saying, “I couldn't pick Matt Walsh out of a lineup?” “
MATT WALSH: “Um, it’s funny, the first time I heard that was when somebody in Hawaii brought the quote to me too. And my first hand answer to them was, well, I wonder if he can pick me out on one of the three team pictures we’re in together.”
ANDREA KREMER: “Why do you think he would have said that?”
MATT WALSH: “I don’t know, if I was just that forgettable and he can't remember me, or if he was just trying to distance himself from this whole situation as best as he could.”
ANDREA KREMER: “What do you think?”
MATT WALSH: “I think Bill’s got a pretty good memory.”
ANDREA KREMER: “Bill also has a great knowledge of the game, so when, when Bill Belichick says he misinterpreted the rules of what can be shot during a game, who much do you believe him?”
MATT WALSH: “When I was doing it, I understood what we were doing to be wrong. We went to great lengths to keep from being caught. Just saying that the rules were misinterpreted isn't enough of a, an apology or a reasoning for what was done. I mean, we live, you know, in a very forgiving nation, you know. People, if you come out and you admit a mistake you made or something you did that you shouldn't have done, people are usually very forgiving of that, accepting. When people try to get around answering it, or giving an explanation, or you know, admitting culpability, that’s usually when people start to question your motives.”


MATT WALSH: “Coach Belichick’s explanation for having misinterpreted the rules. To me, that really didn’t sound like taking responsibility for what we had done, especially considering the great lengths that we had gone through, uh, to hide what we were doing.”

According to Goodell, Walsh at one point during their meeting on Tuesday referred to Belichick as "the man behind the curtain," which leads one to believe he may not have had much interaction with the Pats' coach. - smy

Walsh discusses how his recent public ordeal has affected him.

ANDREA KREMER: “What’s the thing that really bothers you the most about this whole situation, I mean granted, you did what you…were instructed to do, but what bothers you the most when you reflect back on it, years later?”

MATT WALSH: “Really just a lot of…what myself— I can’t speak for them but I have to imagine Steve Scarnecchia and Matt Estrella, you know, have had to go through, and experience, um, simply for being young kids and doing what we were told to do. Um, all the attention this has gotten and how…you know, the Patriots through the media have tried to smear my character. And I hadn’t even come out with any definitive information against them. I never said that we videotaped the Rams’ walk-through, I never came out, I was very, you know, as non-committal as I could in any of the answers I gave, yet they still went to great lengths to try to discredit me. You know, and still to this day, you know, the commissioner says I’ve just presented information that he already knew? Which would mean information before I even talked in the first place? So, well, why put me through all this. If I didn’t do anything to them. And the same thing with Matt Estrella and Steve Scarnecchia. I mean you know, my life, my friend’s life, my family lives, have been turned upside down, supposedly for nothing new.”

Remarkable Success is a 5-11 team?