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And the lynching of Bill Belichick continued with Matt Walsh's testimony to Roger Goodell and susbsequent testimony to Senator Arlen Specter and an interview by HBO.  The angle that got the most anticipation was belief that Walsh had a videotape of the walkthrough by the St. Louis Rams before Superbowl XXXVI, but no such tape was ever made, as known facts and plain common sense had already confirmed.  Walsh's testimony under legal oath to Goodell also confirmed what facts and common sense had confirmed long ago in discrediting the varied rumors of mic'ing of players to record opponant audibles, jamming of opponant radio frequencies (the conspiracy-mongers never explained how the Patriots did this in opponants' own buildings), bugging of opponant locker rooms, etc. 

The NFL media was also treated to a montage of footage stolen by Walsh and turned over to the league, showing opposing coaches in Miami, San Diego, etc., which merely confirmed what Bill Belichick had volunteered to Goodell on September 14 of 2007.  In short, it appeared to be case closed on Videogate.

Except Walsh stirred more controversy with comments impugning the honesty of Belichick and the Patriots and inpugning the integrity of the Patriots' victory over the Rams in Superbowl XXXVI.  Given the wholesale dishonesty of most Mainstream Sports Media coverage of Videogate, it should be expected that they would overlook that even in telling the truth to Goodell, Walsh embellished his ass off to make himself more important to the story than he ever was. 

Four whoppers by Walsh stood out -

**** Walsh claimed to have witnessed the Rams walkthrough in the Superdome wearing official Patriots' gear and was not noticed by the Rams.  This is impossible, especially given the security increase of that particular game.  That the Rams would not notice Patriots' employees watching their walkthrough has zero plausibility.  Either the Rams did see Walsh and determine he was no threat, or Walsh wasn't there. 

**** Walsh claimed he in effect debriefed Brian Daboll, then a member of Belichick's coaching staff, on the walkthrough and told of the use of Marshall Faulk on kick returns and the alignment of tight end sets.  Daboll had already denied talking to Walsh when interviewed by the NFL, and Walsh, never more than a glorified go-fer, never had the knowledge to give trustworthy shop information; it is implausible any coaching staffer talked to him to any serious extent. 

**** Walsh then impugns Belichick by claiming he was trained in elaborate fashion on how to sidestep detection and that Belichick knew his videotaping was illegal.  Belichick volunteered his information to Roger Goodell back in September 2007 and in incidents such as with Green Bay and Buffalo where Patriots videographers were apparantly pointed out and stopped with little difficulty, no evidence of trying to sidestep detection exists.   Walsh also attacked Belichick for "not taking responsibility" in arguing he operated under a different interpretation of the rule, as if volunteering damaging information on himself to the NFL somehow constituted ducking responsibility.

**** Walsh claimed to have attended the Patriots-Steelers game of September 2005 as a season-ticket holder - except it was not a home game but one at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

It bears repeating that Walsh is a notorious embellisher of his resume, having falsified his employment timeline several times, having lied on numerous occassions about his role with the Patriots in their scouting department, and also being less than honest with regard to the end of his employment with the team - he had claimed in some previous incarnations that he quit the team when he in fact was fired for illegally taping conversations and also for theft (shown in the eight tapes he returned to the league, tapes he stole). 

The Walsh brouhaha also brought out a renewal of the insanity that is ESPN coverage of serious issues, with Mark Schlerith and Cris Carter disgracing themselves with irresponsible verbiage attacking the Patriots, verbiage short on facts and long on vitriol.  Schlerith in particular insisted on trying to prove that videotapes can be used in-game for advantage, never conceding that turnaround time makes this impossible (and pretending that Walsh's testimony disproving this argument never happened).  They also acted as if they are ignorant of just how sophisticated modern coaching really is, a level of sophistication that manifestly has to include videotaping.

Of course they also continued to pretend that Belichick's videotaping constituted cheating, never mind that it did not break the three-paragraph bylaw that is the source of this ridiculous issue.  With all the loose verbiage about "the integrity of the game," no one - least of all Roger Goodell - has offered any credible case that Belichick's videotaping of coaches on the sidelines somehow compromises the integrity of the game.  Nor has anyone made a decent argument why acceptance of Belichick's interpretation of the bylaw could not have happened - it is impossible to believe that, if Goodell had simply accepted Belichick's interpretation of the rule and thus told all the other teams to shut up and play that the game would have been harmed. 

This is the real mistake of Videogate - Goodell, then still a wet-behind-the-ears rookie commissioner, thinking he understood the rules more than Belichick and clumsily throwing his authority around.  It is Goodell's attack on the Patriots that hurt the league's integrity, not Belichick's videotaping, for Goodell, whether intentionally or not, smeared the Patriots as cheaters where there never was any cheating, and has brought nothing but scorn upon himself and the league for his handling of the issue. 

Of course jealousy-driven media and opposing teams deserve condemnation as well for pretending they were victimized by some kind of colossal scam and complaining about it.  That Belichick read the rulebook better than they did ultimately is all that happened. 

The jealousy and the hatred won't go away, certainly.  But the truth of the matter still needs to be understood.  The Patriots won three Superbowls fair & square; they did not cheat anywhere here.  That is the bottom line.