Ex-Pats Assistant Denies Walsh's Assertions

A former New England Patriots assistant coach said he did not get information from Matt Walsh about the St. Louis Rams' walk-through before the Super Bowl in 2002.

Brian Daboll, now quarterbacks coach for the New York Jets, had "no recollection of a conversation with Matt Walsh about the Rams' walk-through practice," according to a statement released by the NFL, which re-interviewed him Wednesday.

Walsh, a former video assistant for the Patriots, was interviewed Tuesday in New York by NFL officials about the videotaping scandal involving the Patriots. Walsh told them he did not tape the Rams' walk-through the day before they played the Patriots in the Super Bowl, as had been reported, but he witnessed it and passed along information about it to Daboll.

Such a conversation would not violate NFL rules because Walsh was performing his job duties and "did not conduct himself in a clandestine manner," the league said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the scandal should not be a matter for congressional scrutiny.

"With the war in Iraq raging on, gasoline prices closing in on $4 a gallon, and Americans losing their homes at record rates to foreclosure, the United States Senate should be focusing on the real problems that Americans are struggling with," Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a written statement.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said the NFL should appoint an independent investigator and hinted at congressional involvement if the league does not comply.