PALM BEACH, Fla. – Bill Belichick yesterday said it’s time to stick a fork into Spygate.
Sounding somewhat wary in a rare appearance at the NFL head coaches’ breakfast with the media at the site of this week’s NFL meetings, Belichick said the league had interviewed him twice – right after the Patriots were accused of videotaping Jets’ defensive signals and again after his team’s shocking Super Bowl loss to the Giants.
Belichick said the second interview concerned the allegations that Matt Walsh, a former Patriots employee, had illegal tapes that presumably included a walk-through by the Rams on the day before the 2002 Super Bowl.
“They’ve addressed everything they possibly can address,” Belichick said. “Pick a subject and I’ll tell you they addressed it. I don’t know how the league can do any more. I’ve answered so many questions so many times, so many ways to so many different people . . . I don’t know how much more they can possibly do.”
Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft later addressed the owners and apologized for the Spygate mess.
The NFL has been negotiating an agreement with Walsh, now a golf pro in Hawaii, to come forward.
“Whatever the [Walsh] allegations are, I’m confident that that’s not true,” Belichick said. “Nothing has really happened. Allegations were made before the Super Bowl and I don’t think there’s any new information since then – certainly not anything that I’m aware of. I don’t think those allegations are true.”
Commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed that the NFL spoke with Belichick and other Patriots employees about the Walsh allegations.
“We followed up on other things because certain things had been tossed out,” Goodell said.
Asked if he believes Walsh, who was fired by the Patriots in 2003, has an ax to grind, Belichick said, “I don’t know. I had almost no interaction with Matt Walsh when I was there. Now, he was there several years before I got there, but I’ve had almost no interaction with him.
“My personal involvement with Matt Walsh when he was there when I was there was very minimal. I mean, there really wasn’t any.”
Asked if he was surprised to hear about Walsh’s allegations, Belichick said, “They totally came out of right field to me. I’ve never seen a tape of another team’s practice . . . ever . . in 34 years of coaching.”
Meanwhile, with regard to the illegal videotaping of the Jets in the 2007 season opener, Belichick maintained he misinterpreted the rules.
“The way the rule is written I interpreted that you couldn’t use [the tape] during that current game, which was never done; I’ve never done that, never used any information from the game in that current game,” he said.
“What I should have done was I should have called the league and asked for a clarification of it, but when I re-read that rule I still interpreted incorrectly.
“We paid a price for that mistake,” he said. “It was my mistake.”
Belichick yesterday voted for a proposal that resulted from Spygate. Starting this season one defensive player will be allowed to wear a helmet similar to what the quarterback is allowed on offense. The vote was 25-7 in favor.
Asked how much help one of those sideline videotapes of the opposing coaches can be in scouting an opponent, Belichick said, “In the big picture, I would say relative to what the penalty was for it, not very helpful. I think if you take a look at the results of this season that would confirm that.”
When it was brought to his attention that, because of these incidents, the Patriots’ success in recent years has been tainted, Belichick said, “I know what the truth is. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. I can’t control what everybody thinks. I’m not going to try to do that.”
