More From Matt Walsh's HBO Interview

In today's print edition, we wrote about Matt Walsh's interview with HBO scheduled to air Friday night. The story focuses on Walsh's contention that the New England Patriots gained a significant competitive advantage from their illegal videotaping program and quotes him extensively from excerpts from the interview released by the network.

Here are some additional excerpts:

Walsh on being coached by Patriots officials on how to get around league rules limiting the number of camera operators per team allowed at a game:
"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."

On his one-time suspicion that another team (not identified by Walsh, but identified Wednesday by Sen. Arlen Specter as the Jets) was doing the same thing:
"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.' "

On Patriots Coach Bill Belichick saying he couldn't pick Walsh out of a lineup:
"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."

On what he's been through:
"The Patriots through the media have tried to smear my character. And I hadn't even come out with any definitive information against them. I never said that we videotaped the Rams' walk-through, I never came out, I was very, you know, as non-committal as I could in any of the answers I gave, yet they still went to great lengths to try to discredit me. You know, and still to this day, you know, the commissioner says I've just presented information that he already knew? Which would mean information before I even talked in the first place? So, well, why put me through all this if I didn't do anything to them?... I mean you know, my life, my friend's life, my family['s] lives, have been turned upside down, supposedly for nothing new."

By Mark Maske |  May 15, 2008; 8:10 PM ET  | Category:  League , Patriots
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