Walsh: Taping Helped Patriots

Senator Seeks 'Objective' Probe

Former New England Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh said in a television interview that he believes the team gained a significant competitive advantage from its program of videotaping opponents' play signals throughout the coaching tenure of Bill Belichick.

Walsh said in an interview with HBO that he once was told by a Patriots quarterback that the information provided by the taping program enabled the team to know about 75 percent of the defensive plays run by an opponent.

"You know, it's important information," Walsh said, according to written excerpts of the interview released by the network yesterday. "And if you know what defense a particular team's gonna run, if you're essentially in their huddle, you know, that's quite an advantage to have on offense."

Earlier yesterday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) called for the NFL to appoint an independent investigator to look into the videotaping scandal involving the Patriots and Belichick. The NFL issued a written statement saying it stood by its investigation.

Walsh met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and other league officials on Tuesday in New York, and met with Specter in Washington later in the day. Goodell said after his nearly 3 1/2 -hour meeting with Walsh that he did not plan to impose further penalties on the Patriots.

In his interview with HBO, scheduled to air on the network tomorrow night, Walsh confirmed many of the details of his meetings with Goodell and Specter that previously had been made public by the two men. Walsh confirmed a meeting disclosed earlier yesterday by Specter.

Walsh said he'd been told by a Patriots quarterback that the quarterback had been called into a meeting in Belichick's office before the opening regular season game in 2000 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. According to Walsh, the meeting included Belichick, Patriots staff member Ernie Adams and Charlie Weis, then the team's offensive coordinator and now the head coach at Notre Dame.

The quarterback, who was not identified by Walsh, was told that the Patriots had a tape of the Buccaneers' defensive signals. He was told to learn the signals so he could stand next to Weis on the sideline during the game and give the Buccaneers' defensive play call to Weis, who could relay it to Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Walsh said that Bledsoe had the Buccaneers' defensive play call "within two to three seconds" of the play being signaled in. Walsh said he later was told by a Patriots quarterback that the Buccaneers ran the expected defense about three-quarters of the time.

Walsh said the Patriots intensified their taping program in 2001 to include more opponents. He said the Patriots began using a no-huddle offense with Bledsoe to force opposing coaches to signal in their defensive plays quicker. Walsh said he thinks the Patriots would regard the three Super Bowl titles they've won under Belichick as well worth the penalties imposed on them in September by Goodell -- $750,000 in fines and the loss of a first-round pick in last month's NFL draft. "If it was of little or no importance, I imagine they wouldn't have continued to do it, and probably not taken the chances of going down onto the field in Pittsburgh or shooting from other teams' stadiums the way we did," Walsh said.

Walsh rejected Belichick's public explanation that he merely misinterpreted NFL rules. Walsh said he knew at the time that he was violating league rules, and he and the Patriots did all they could to avoid being caught. Goodell said Tuesday that he also had rejected Belichick's explanation when he penalized the Patriots. Goodell has said he does not believe the Patriots gained a significant competitive advantage from videotaping the hand signals of opposing coaches because opponents know those signals can be monitored legally without taping equipment.

Walsh said he once suspected another team of conducting similar videotaping during a game. He did not identify the team. But earlier yesterday, Specter said he'd been told by Walsh it was the New York Jets.

Specter continued to harshly criticize the league's investigation of the scandal, and said the league should use an outside investigator as baseball did when it appointed former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchell to issue a report on steroid use in that sport.

"What is necessary is an objective investigation," Specter said during a Capitol Hill news conference, "and this one has not been objective."

But Specter, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, stopped short of pledging to lobby the committee chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), to conduct hearings on the issue if the NFL does not comply.

The NFL issued a written statement that said: "We respectfully disagree with Senator Specter's characterization of the investigation conducted by our office. We are following up after [Tuesday's] meeting with Matt Walsh."

Specter's news conference came hours after the Boston Herald issued an apology in yesterday's editions for what it called its "false" report on Feb. 2 report that the Patriots videotaped the St. Louis Rams' walk-through before the two teams played in the Super Bowl in 2002.