Excerpts of the HBO Real Sports interview with former New England Patriots employee Matt Walsh have been released. This edition of Real Sports will be seen on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. Andrea Kremer conducted the interview.
Now I’m not allowed to give all of the excerpts, just portions of them, but here are some of the more interesting quotes. These come directly from the HBO Sports press release.
Walsh says that because the Patriots continued to use their standard allotment of two “normal” camera operators on game day for traditional filming purposes, he was coached by his superiors on how to evade league rules limiting the number of camera operators allowed per team, and coached on how to avoid getting caught doing what he was doing.
MATT WALSH: “The line of reasoning that we would give to other teams for why we need a third camera set-up was, well, our coaches wanna have a tight shot of the kicker and the holder, you know, exchange just to go over with the guys in meetings. You know, they want a tight shot, you know, of the quarterback, you know, just to go over the quarterback’s footwork and mechanics in meetings. Uh, if I was in the end zone we would say, well, we just wanna have two end zone shots of the game because our coaches like always seeing the view of our players’ backs.”
ANDREA KREMER: “Who was giving you the, the rationales, for… trying to get the extra camera or trying to get a, an extra camera position?”
MATT WALSH: “[Patriots video coordinator] Jimmy Dee had told me what these, would be the explanations that would be — and, um, you know, if somebody questioned what we were doing, you know, this is what we’d say why we were doing it.”
ANDREA KREMER: “What’s going through your mind as you’re getting all these, uh, these explanations?”
MATT WALSH: “Make sure I don’t get caught. Try to do the best and stay concealed, not let on that this I what we’re doing.”
Walsh says that at the time, he suspected another team of similar illicit activity, and recently reported his suspicion to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
MATT WALSH: “There was only one other time that I ever suspected another team of possibly shooting our signals. Um, both of us were shooting together on the roof of the old Foxboro Stadium. I was filming their defensive coaches sending in their signals, and I would look over when we were on defense, and I’d see him panning over to our sideline, and then going back to the field, panning over and going back. I didn’t say anything to him, because I was doing the same thing he was, but you know, after the game I went into our defensive coach’s office, uh, talked with Romeo Crennel, there were a couple of other coaches in there at the time, but I said to Romeo, ‘you know, look, you know, they just, uh, you know, the team we just played, you know, I think was shooting our signals’, or ‘the team we just played I think was doing to us what we do to them. So, the next time we play them we might want to change up our defensive signals a little bit.’”
ANDREA KREMER: “And what team was that?”
MATT WALSH: ”I’d rather not say.”
ANDREA KREMER: “It’s all in the past at this point. What goes around comes around, right? We know the Patriots did it.”
MATT WALSH: “That’s for the NFL to investigate.”
ANDREA KREMER: ”Is it a team in the division?”
MATT WALSH: “It’s for the NFL to investigate, I answered all the questions that they asked me, so hopefully they gained all the knowledge that they wanted from it.”
ANDREA KREMER: “Did you tell the NFL which team it was?”
MATT WALSH: “Hmm? Yes, I did.”
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.”
That’s pretty much all I can give. There’s a lot more stuff and it’s quite interesting. Again, this edition of Real Sports will be seen this Friday night at 8. I will probably do a real time review of this on Friday so look for it then.
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