“Rollo Tomasi’s the reason I became a cop. I wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it. It was supposed to be about justice.” – Ed Exley (Guy Pearce), “LA Confidential”

This is the lede question in Peter King’s Mailbag today:

WHERE’S BELICHICK’S SUSPENSION?

With all the recent talk of Deflategate focusing on Tom Brady, I’d like to revisit a side issue that nobody’s talking about anymore. Why wasn’t Bill Belichick suspended? Roger Goodell threw the book at Sean Payton in Bountygate, saying Payton ultimately was responsible for his team even if he wasn’t aware of any bounties. By the same logic, Belichick also should be suspended, especially considering that Belichick has a prior record with Spygate. In that case, if I’m not mistaken, Belichick specifically ignored a league edict forbidding teams from filming opponents’ practice sessions. I think the lack of a suspension for Belichick helps perpetuate the belief that the league treats the Patriots differently than other teams.

“Belichick specifically ignored a league edict forbidding teams from filming opponents’ practice sessions.” Did you catch that? That’s the common belief people have about Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.

Do you know how that belief began? Not with Spygate. That was about taping signals out in the open, but from the wrong location.

Two weeks ago, after I made a reference to John Tomase’s role in demonizing the Patriots, two people responded, “What did he do?”

I was stunned. They didn’t know the story? Surely they’ve heard how, on the eve of Super Bowl 42, Tomase and the Boston Herald published a fallacious story accusing the Patriots of videotaping the Rams’ walkthrough prior to Super Bowl 36, right? And how they were forced to retract it three months later?

But that event occurred seven years ago. And understandably, there are readers too young to know anything about it.

Yet the myth of the walkthrough tape persists.

Tomase could be heard this weekend giving his expert opinion that “down there” they think that everything bad that happens to the Patriots is because people are out to get them.

Huh. I wonder why that is.

You know how you often hear from both the media and other fans that the Patriots taped practices, including the Rams before their first Super Bowl win!  In addition to the above, here are some examples.

49ers, Rams have right to feel cheated – Mike Sando

Steve Scarnecchia, the person responsible for the illicit taping earlier this month, worked for New England when the Patriots allegedly taped St. Louis Rams practices before Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. As a result, I’m more comfortable removing the word “allegedly” from the previous sentence. The Patriots employed cheaters. Scarnecchia’s father, Dante, still works for the Patriots.

Personal for Pats-Jets – Leonard Shapiro

CORRECTION
A previous version of this post incorrectly characterized the offense for which New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick was fined by the NFL. The corrected version appears below.

2015 offseason off to rocky start – John Clayton

For example, Sean Payton received a one-year suspension for the Saints’ bounty scandals while Bill Belichick wasn’t suspended for spying on practices.

And how about this:

And there’s more. 

It is a statement now accepted as fact, and used by many people when they list out the Patriots transgressions as CHEATERZ!!!

In reality, it is complete and utter fiction. Manufactured by John Tomase.

From the Boston Herald, February 4th, 2008, by John Tomase.

Source: Pats employee filmed Rams
By John Tomase

PHOENIX – One night before the Patriots face the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, new allegations have emerged about a Patriots employee taping the Rams’ final walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI.

According to a source, a member of the team’s video department filmed the Rams’ final walkthrough before that 2002 game. The next day, the Patriots upset St. Louis, 20-17, on a last-second field goal by Adam Vinatieri for their first championship.

A bit further in:

According to a source close to the team during the 2001 season, here’s what happened. On Feb. 2, 2002, one day before the Patriots’ Super Bowl game against heavily favored St. Louis in New Orleans, the Patriots visited the Superdome for their final walkthrough.

After completing the walkthrough, they had their team picture taken and the Rams then took the field. According to the source, a member of the team’s video staff stayed behind after attending the team’s walkthrough and filmed St. Louis’ walkthrough.

At no point was he asked to identify himself or produce a press pass, the source said. The cameraman rode the media shuttle back to the hotel with news photographers when the Rams walkthrough was completed, the source said.

The story was single sourced. Red flag right there. The story of course became immediately accepted as fact. The name that kept coming up was Matt Walsh, a former Patriots cameraman.

Walsh eventually ended up talking to Roger Goodell and the Commissioner made this statement following the meeting:

“We were also able to verify that there was no Rams walkthrough tape. No one asked him to tape the walkthrough. He’s not aware of anybody else who may have taped the walkthrough. He had not seen such a tape. He does not know of anybody who says there is a tape. He was in the building at the time of the walkthrough along with other Patriots video personnel. They were doing their job prior to the game. He in fact was even on the sidelines in his Patriots gear while the Rams were practicing. So it was clear that there was not an overt attack addressing access into the Rams walkthrough.”

Following Walsh’s revelation that no walk-through tape existed, Tomase’s initial response was to double down:

Goodell ready to close door on Pats’ videotaping saga:
But Walsh admits to spying at 2001 Rams’ walkthrough

While NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seems ready to close the door on the Patriots [team stats] videotaping saga after meeting with Matt Walsh at NFL headquarters today, new questions arose when the former team video assistant admitted that he spied on the Rams’ walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI and passed along information from the walkthrough to an assistant coach.
…
However, after the press conference, NFL counsel Gregg Levy explained that Walsh had passed on observations from the walkthrough to former Patriots assistant Brian Daboll, who’s now with the New York Jets [team stats].

“Walsh was asked during the interview today whether after the walkthrough, anyone asked him about what he had seen,” Levy said. “He said ‘yes’. He saw Brian Daboll … and Daboll asked him what he saw. Walsh said two things — one, he had seen Marshall Faulk in a formation to receive a kickoff or a punt, and he had been asked about offensive formations, particularly about the use of the tight end. My understanding is that is not consistent with what we had learned prior to the interview, during the course of the investigation. At this point, it’s uncorroborated, but it’s something the league is going to look into.”

Note the tone of the headline and subhead. Goodell “ready to close the door”, but Walsh “admits to spying”. Tomase was trying to intimate that his faulty walk-through story was still true!

Later in the day, someone at the Herald thought better of it, and replaced it with this:

Roger Goodell: Case closed
Walsh tells Goodell he didn’t tape walkthrough

NEW YORK – Matt Walsh finally had his day in front of the NFL, and as far as commissioner Roger Goodell is concerned, this chapter of the Patriots [team stats] videotaping saga is closed.

Walsh, a former Patriots video assistant who last week turned over eight tapes showing the team recording opposing offensive and defensive signals, met for more than three hours with Goodell yesterday. In the commissioner’s view, he offered no new information worth reopening the league’s investigation into the Patriots’ videotaping practices.

The new tone is purely reporting the story, minus the previous editorial inferences.

The next day, the Boston Herald looked like this:

BostonHeraldCoverMay14

 

This was the statement from the Herald:

On Feb. 2, 2008, the Boston Herald reported that a member of the New England Patriots [team stats]’ video staff taped the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI. While the Boston Herald based its Feb. 2, 2008, report on sources that it believed to be credible, we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walkthrough ever existed.

Prior to the publication of its Feb. 2, 2008, article, the Boston Herald neither possessed nor viewed a tape of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI, nor did we speak to anyone who had. We should not have published the allegation in the absence of firmer verification.

The Boston Herald regrets the damage done to the team by publication of the allegation, and sincerely apologizes to its readers and to the New England Patriots’ owners, players, employees and fans for our error.

…we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walkthrough ever existed.  Try telling that to anyone today. They will think you are crazy. Of course they taped the walkthrough! It was reported everywhere!

Two days later on May 16th, the Herald ran Tomase’s explanation. 

What a mess. Let’s look at some of it:

Late in the 2006 season, I was having a casual conversation about the Patriots when someone I trust threw out the following tidbit.

“I heard the Patriots filmed the Rams’ final walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI,” he said.

It was just a rumor, and certainly not actionable intelligence, as they say. He had heard it from a friend of a friend. I filed it away, and then forgot about it. Reporters hear stuff like that all the time.

So first he says in 2006 he heard it from a source who got it from “a friend of a friend.”

Seems legit.

Little did I know that comment would resurface from a much stronger source in the days after the Patriots had been caught filming the Jets’ defensive signals in September 2007.

He then forgot about it until September of 2007, so we’ll assume nobody else brought it up to him in this time frame.

So after the Spygate game, he heard the story “from a much stronger source.”

OK great.

Oh wait, if the first “source” was someone who heard it from a friend of a friend, it really wouldn’t take much to make it a much stronger source, huh? Maybe this source just heard it from a friend.

Again, he labeled this a “source”….singular.

I still needed more, and I tried to get it. Two days before the Super Bowl, I finally believed I had it nailed that the Pats had indeed taped that walkthrough. I didn’t know what happened to the tape or if it ever found its way to the coaching staff, but I felt I had the basic story, and even though I didn’t feel great about going the anonymous source route, this one was ready for print.

So he finally “nailed it” two days before the Super Bowl. Sort of. Kind of. Well, not really.

The leap he made is astounding to anyone who has been around journalism. . He just admitted that his two sources were not present at the walkthrough, but instead had heard the story of the walkthrough from somebody else. Neither had seen a video. And he tries to tie this all together via the revelation that a Pats video guy was present at the walkthrough, which turned out to be not a revelation after all.

Turns out I could not have been more wrong. I regret it, and that’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.

So now the rationalization starts in earnest.

I had repeatedly heard that this walkthrough had been taped, and from people I trusted. Eventually I accepted it as fact and stopped questioning the assertion.

Wait, what? “repeatedly heard?”and “people I trusted?” Sounds like Tomase is trying to shift blame for his own mistakes. Maybe they were earnest in telling the story, but it is the reporters job to nail down the story, not their job. He needed to get the people who told his people the story. Did they see they video? If not, where did they hear the story? And follow up the chain. If the chain breaks before you get somebody saying they saw a video, you don’t have the story. That’s journalism, and them’s the breaks.

He heard it once, on a friend of a friend of a friend level, in late 2006 before hearing it from an actual source that supposedly gave it to you in September 2007. But still you didn’t consider it strong enough to run. Around the Super Bowl, you finally nailed it, you say. You can trust your friend, sure, but how much should you trust your friend’s friend’s story?

In the February 4th story itself, it mentioned a single source – three times. That is consistent with the time frame he lays out here, possibly two at most. The first weird “source who heard it from a friend of a friend” is not a source. Here he claims to have had more, (“I had repeatedly heard”) as if it is an excuse when in reality, he had nothing.

Yet he goes on to this “repeatedly heard” crap. Yeah right Tomase, it was probably whoever your original friend of friend idiot was just spinning it to other people who regurgitated it to you, by then it’s five, six, seven people deep in layers. So you stupidly assume it’s smoke when it’s the same small circle of media people trashing the Patriots second hand because they hate Bill Belichick.

We have a problem here with a flaw in what is called the Argument from Multiple Attestation.

Fewer sources with a good provenance for their information are better than more sources just repeating rumors.

The confirmed presence of a member of the team’s video staff at the walkthrough reinforced my belief that it was filmed. Secondhand sourcing took on added weight. When I got word that other reporters had picked up the scent, it only steeled my resolve not to get beat.

You know that whole “Be right, not first” thing that journalists supposedly live by.

Eh, not so much. Rather than being right, Tomase was more concerned about being first.

All of that said, I never expected to be running this story during Super Bowl week, but I opened the New York Times on Friday, Feb. 1, and saw that not only was Specter complaining about the NFL’s investigation into the Patriots, but that the Times had tracked down Walsh, a former Patriots video assistant living in Hawaii who was suggesting he had more information on the team.

Walsh’s name set off alarms. He worked for the Pats during the 2001 season and his name had been floated amongst the rumors. Many believed he had filmed the walkthrough.My determination to get the story had been re-stoked. I began reaching back out to sources.

One that I trust said he had been told the walkthrough was taped. A second said he had been told the same thing, but neither had seen a tape.

I already had been able to verify that a member of the team’s video staff had been setting up a camera at the walkthrough, but on the final, crucial point of whether the camera was actually rolling, I made a devastating leap of logic and assumed that’s what I was being told rather than confirming it explicitly. I considered the fact that it was taped unassailable.

So a few items here:

  • He says Walsh’s name set off alarms, but doesn’t ever mention Walsh in his original article. And it seems apparent that neither of his sources named Walsh either. So from the start, he was riding the crest of the NYT’s wave, hoping Walsh was his unnamed walkthrough videographer.
  • As mentioned above, both sources were hearsay (“he had been told”, “second said he had been told the same thing”). So neither was even at the walkthrough.
  • The verification of the camera setup meant nothing, because had Tomase investigated it further, he would have learned that’s exactly the job they were there to do. He might have also learned that there was no electricity to the locations, nor did they have their battery packs.

Someone who is trying to break a story of this magnitude might try a littler harder to actually nail down details.

By the time Walsh met with the league and revealed that he had no knowledge of the walkthrough being filmed, it was clear what we had to do. The paper issued a front-page apology Wednesday.

OK, here’s the deal, The Patriots four man video team at Super Bowl 36 was Jimmy Dee, Walsh, Ferando Neto and Steve Scarnecchia. (and possibly an intern named Ed Bailey) The only way Tomase’s story would be vetted is if the source of either of his two sources was one of those men. That Tomase and the Herald waited on Walsh’s meeting with Goodell to finally issue their apology proves none of them were sources.

No one forced me to write that story, and it’s important to note I do not believe I was ever lied to. I believe my sources intended to provide accurate information, and it was incumbent on me to vet it more fully.

Hey John, basically what you’re saying here is nobody you talked to really had anything other than second hand rumors that were false. #Protip: Those aren’t sources.  So if a source isn’t maliciously lying to you for a nefarious purpose, that’s supposedly a point in your favor that you were justified in believing the story?

In summary, We could ask these questions of Tomase:

Did you see the tape?  No

Did any of your sources, or the sources of your sources, confirm they saw a walk-through tape?

Did anyone anywhere at any given time ever say that they saw the tape?  No

But he had no doubt this story was spot on the nails accurate.  No question.

This part kills me:

Tomase was never publicly punished for what he did here. He went right back on the Patriots beat in 2008, and then he was “promoted” to the Red Sox beat, and then this year he was hired as a columnist for WEEI.com. His career never skipped a beat.

You know what? His Red Sox coverage was pretty good. As a columnist, he’s not bad with the Celtics either.

But he should never be allowed to write about the Patriots. Especially perched on some moral high ground judgment, as he does in today’s column with his conviction that Tom Brady is lying and has been proven a cheater by Roger Goodell and the NFL.

John Tomase cheated.

He did so wantonly and was not punished for it. He suffered no lasting consequences to his career. But he wants to sit here and tells us about the alleged failings of Tom Brady, ignoring actual facts, embracing hyperbole and gorging himself on the information that the NFL is spoon-feeding the media in this case. He wants to demand that Brady confess and accept punishment.

That’s the journalistic world we live in.

If John Tomase doesn’t print falsehoods the day before the Super Bowl in February 2008, maybe the lynch mob doesn’t gather quite as quickly following this year’s AFC Championship game.

I look forward to the inevitable emails I will receive from Tomase’s media brethren. Telling me I should let it go, he’s a good guy and that everyone makes mistakes.

Right, because they never hold grudges toward the people they cover.

Evidence of Tomase’s popularity among his peers is evident from Twitter this morning:

Never forget what John Tomase did, to the New England Patriots, and to you.

Thanks to Dan Snapp, Greg Doyle and others for helping put this together. 

Additional Reading from that time period:

What’s Next for Tomase, Herald? (May 13th, 2008)

Boston Herald Apologizes To Patriots – Is It Enough? (May 14th, 2008)

One Thing, John – (May 14th, 2008)

Herald, Massarotti Continue Alienation of Readers – (May 15th, 2008)

Tomase Explanation A Bit Light In Detail (May 16th, 2008)

Where Are The Editors? Tomase Abettors Need To Be Named. (May 16th, 2008)

Editor’s Identities Not “In The Best Interest Of The Paper” (May 16th, 2008)

Why Spygate Is The Most Disgraceful Episode In Recent Sports Media History (May 20th, 2008. Who knew it would topped?)

The Merchant of Wingo Square – (May 20th, 2008)

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

80 thoughts on “A Reminder About John “Rollo” Tomase…”

  1. I have yet to read another word that John has written and will continue to ignore his opinions or articles in print or on T.V. or radio. Any sponsors out there listening? When this guy is on, I turn the channel. At this point things are obviously personal for him so I could care less what he has to say about the Patriots or any other team.

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    2. echo that. i don’t even want to see anything with that guys name in it and even had to stop following rob bradford on twitter because he kept retweeting links to tomase stories.

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    3. Haven’t read him since ’08. There’s plenty of informed opinion on the web, no need to bother with hacks.

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  2. Ahhh…Bruce…old memories…good times…

    My oldest daughter took AP US History last year. We had several long conversations during the year about revisionist historians and how dangerous they can be as they try and change our interpretation of the past to push forward an agenda. For example, the narrative that the idea that Jefferson was not all that brilliant because he was a slave owner. Tomase as long as he stays employed in this market will have defenders who look at what he did with a revisionist eye. They will say he made a mistake and it was not that big a deal. He was young. He trusted the wrong people…etc. He did not have a fallacious report as you say…he had a fictitious report that masked his fallacious accusation. I have fired people for a whole lot less.

    Mike Barnicle was fired for plagiarizing a joke…a one liner that he thought was in the public domain. His career destroyed. He became an outcast in Boston and had to move to NY. Ken Powers was at the Worcester Telegram when he admitted to borrowing reports and not properly citing them in his weekly “notes” column. His career was destroyed. He has never been heard from again. John Tomase received nothing other than a promotion to the Sox beat and eventually WEEI. I said it when he was hired…clearly WEEI is not interested in quality as they just hired the epitome of “look at me” reporting.

    Finally the thing that bugs me most about all of the disinformation out there is that the NFL does nothing, absolutely nothing to defend the Patriots in light of all this nonsense. I was on a plane about a year ago coming back from Hong Kong, I was wearing a Patriots hat because it is a long trip and I have Jewfro hair. Guy next to me sees the hat and we strike up an NFL chat. He is a Bears fan. He mentions spygate and the taping of practices. I spend the next 30 minutes educating the guy as to what really happened and that spy gate was not the video tape practice scandal. He thanks me…and says…no one I know thinks the two events were separate. *sigh*

    WEEI should fire Tomase. Barring that they should tell him the Pats are off limits. Barring that they should give me the same amount of air time, space and ink they give him so that I can counter any and everything he says either on the radio or in print.

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  3. Let’s not ever, EVER forget that Felger, after Goodell came out and said that Walsh had debunked the walkthrough tape story, still said that “Tomase basically got the story right…he just got the semantics wrong.” This was in response to Goodell confirming that the Patriots’ videographers were, in fact, present at the Superdome that day, but that they had no power to run their equipment and some may have simply observed parts of the Rams’ walkthrough. Felger was basically calling the two situations — taping the walkthrough and being in the stadium during the walkthrough — equal. It was all just a matter of semantics, you see; if Tomase had just said that the Patriots’ employees observed the walkthrough instead of filming it, the story would have been 100% accurate. (And it also would have been 100% less impactful, since the video staff had permission from the NFL to be in the stadium during that time frame, and none of them were coaches who would have been able to understand what they were seeing taking place on the field). Never forget, Boston…. that’s your #1 rated sports radio host.

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  4. It is good to see a diminutive sports media hack with no other skills in life getting continually bludgeoned. People like him deserve to get baseball bats swung AT them as much as BY them. Good to see Jonnie Tomase drawn & quartered again.

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  5. I’m so over the Bertrand experiment. Maybe it’s him being paired this week with Adam Jones, but 98.5 has been a 8-hour, daily Felger-palooza. From 10-2 you get the diet version, than at 2 the main course. I can only conjure in my head how great Gresh & Zo would have been this week. Gresh was breathing fire on JT The Brick last night. Beatle and Zo is dead to me. WEEI could win this timeslot easily with the right pairing, beit Big O or moving Dale & Holley back (and bringing back The Big Show).

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    1. On Jones, I think Portnoy put it best:

      Someone on here put it best, “The F&M wrap-up show.”

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      1. And he and his co-host forget each others names about 10 times a minute. “Jones” “Jones” “Keefe” “Jones” “Keefe” “Keefe”.

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    2. I wonder if they have to pay Felger to use the deep patriots voice “uuuugggh tom brady is perfect”.

      I already shut them off for today. Jones actually said “why didn’t Kraft call for the suspension to be wiped? he just said reduced, so is he admitting Brady did it?” Even though Kraft did say the suspension should exonerated.

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    1. I’d sue ESPN immediately based on that graphic. That is a multi-billion dollar organization with resources up the ying-yang. It would take five seconds for them to confirm that the “Rams Walkthrough” story was false……that is, if they were actually interested in reporting the truth. Malice of forethought, anyone?

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      1. Yes, that’s what inspired my morning jaunt through the Cumberland County real estate archives. To think that tying lobster bibs on his ilk was the most coveted summer job in high school. Try not to choke on a tomalley next time you’re DownEast, boss.

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  8. Somebody please tell me that colleges are using Tomase’s idiocy in a course detailing bad journalism.

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    1. I always thought his mug would go better on an ad warning about the dangers of putting muppets in the washing machine, instead of having them dry cleaned.

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  9. By the way, Jackie Mac, reliably foolish when she steps outside of her basketball comfort zone, just became the latest local media member to say that Brady “just needs to accept this and move on.” Yup. Just accept it, Tom. Just accept the lies, the smears, and the completely fact-free railroading of your legacy by those dishonest dirtbags in the NFL offices. I’ll repeat myself: I’m sure Jackie M., and all media members calling for Brady to just accept this punishment and move on, would do the EXACT same thing if they were falsely accused of a crime and unfairly prosecuted and convicted based on hearsay and trumped-up “evidence” that isn’t really evidence at all. They would just sit back and accept their jail time. No lawyers. No appeals. They’d just sit back and let their careers be destroyed based on NOTHING. Do these people actually hear themselves, or realize what they’re saying? Unreal. And Jackie, I’ll repeat myself again: Stick. To. Basketball. Please.

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  10. Here’s an “investigative” question: If the NFL is so confident in going to court over everything that they have, why did they preemptively file in this case?

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    1. Venue shopping. That’s pretty clear.

      When there are multiple venues involved in a case, the courts usually balance a number of factors in determining which venue controls — location of potential witnesses, location of the crime/tort, location of the parties, etc. The NFL is hoping that since there’s an action in the NY district, and since the NFL and many potential witnesses are located there (vs. Minnesota), that the case will wind up there.

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        1. My opinion is that the NFL has far more invested in this case than the others that went to court, and that’s why they’re treating the legal proceeding differently. This mess involves the entire rotten power structure of the league, from the Commissioner, to his immature, scheming, biased, corrupt employees, to the other 31 owners, to the coaches and game-day staffs of at least two Patriots rivals. The only thing that comes close to this case is Bountygate, and, let’s face it, no one outside of Louisiana gives a crap about the Saints. They had one miracle season, contended for two more, and then went back to obscurity. The league MUST win this one, or heads may very well roll, especially if Brady does what he should do and sue them for a HUGE sum for defamation, after he’s exonerated.

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    1. “Tom regularly deletes his texts,” said Yee.

      Who doesn’t?

      no No NO! Tom Brady is the first person, in the history of mobile phones, that both deletes texts and from time to time, upgrades his phone!

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    1. Why do they insist on wasting time asking questions they know he will stonewall? The media complains about him, but they are just as responsible for not adjusting their questioning style. As you said, guys like Reiss who do their job and frame their inquiries properly get “real” answers.

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  13. So Felger and Mazz struggled greatly today as their Meme that this should all be on the feet of Belichick took a pretty good hit when Kraft got to the microphone.

    Kraft said “We had already provided the league with every cell phone of every non-NFLPA employee that they requested, including head coach Bill Belichick.”

    When Mazz and Felger were going through Krafts statement line by line…they completely skipped this. Completely. Why? Because it totally destroys their ridiculous meme.

    When Kraft is done with the NFL he should sit down and have a long heart to heart with the management team at the Patriots flagship radio station. They should demand fair coverage or else.

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    1. Around 4:15 today a caller asked why isn’t Gostkowski suspended for refusing to give up his phone? Felger had not answer, say well hey well, mumbled about Brady and moved on to the next caller.

      They are at their absolute worst today. They are now defended Goodell saying the PED violation is precedent for this “violation”

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      2. The one that gets me is when either Tony or Mike say…its incontrovertible…they did something. They can never tell me what they did. But they know they did something because…well balls never deflate on their own…wait science says they do…well this is not about science its about obstruction…but no one obstructed anything…they were as transparent as they could be and the NFL did not find anything so they said…maybe Brady knew something…Mike that’s good enough for me…me too Tony…those footie pajama Patriots stooges.

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    2. I would LOVE to see the Krafts pull the Pats from 98.5 or at least tell TSH to pound sand – you get ZERO access to players or coaches on your airwaves. There’s being homers and there’s being the complete opposite, which is what DB and YARM are. That’s bad for business on both sides.

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      1. the problem with that is is that Felger doesn’t care about access to players and his opinion matters to the Hub because he’s their golden boy.

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  14. NBC Nightly News just aired a report. Kraft, Brady’s statement, Yee. Matter-of-fact reporting.

    And then they end the segment by showing Shaughnessy’s headline calling Brady a liar and and a cheat, state that he’s not being defended in Boston, and actually interview CHB, who reiterates: liar, cheat, he should confess.

    Holy effing crap.

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    1. He’s like the “go-to Boston Sports Guy” for many networks, unfortunately.

      I’m wondering with what a circus this is (every network did something while at the gym and looking around), if they’re going to try and get cameras in there. I’m just imaging Nancy Disgrace leading off 8PM every night doing “legal analysis” on this stuff.

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      1. He is, I know, and for the life of me I can’t fathom why. He even shows up on the damn Bruins Stanley Cup DVD. Who the hell appointed him as the voice of Boston sports? I’d like to know so I can track them down and deliver a good hard kick to the shins.

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          1. The more painful reminder for me: Heidi’s gone, and she’s not coming back (and NESN isn’t even trying anymore….Gary Striewski? Really?)

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  15. Bob Kraft had some pretty harsh words for the NFL and Goddell today. All and when I say All I mean all the media attention has been suggesting Kraft is now Al Davis. He is fighting alone and the 31 other owners. I have been wondering about that. I wonder if he made these statements without getting some support lined up. Jerry Jones has already come out in support of Goodell but I wonder what Tom Benson, the Maras, the Rooney’s and someone like Paul Allen thinks. I am just finding it hard to believe Kraft went lone wolf.

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    2. Read the quotes here:

      http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/07/30/even-though-robert-kraft-doesnt-jerry-jones-backs-roger-goodell/

      I never got the “taking advantage of an uncapped year”, so they lost some cap space. That sucks but it’s one year of a loss. Lack of a first-round pick means you lose out on the chance to have a starter for at least 4-5 years, if not longer.

      I think if you had to rank those, the first round pick was worse.

      So, he’s moved on.

      As for Benson, I don’t have a link to the quotes, and could not quickly find them when typing this, but he was the opposite. I saw someone RT’d a quote from him when asked yesterday, basically saying, “I’m going to pass on what my reaction is.” (He doesn’t want to get fined.)

      What did he really say? Have to quote a favorite movie of mine, Die Hard I, when Willis yells out, “Welcome to the party, pal!”

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  16. I want nothing more than for WEEI to put Dale&Holley back to middays and give Ordway his old shift back with his new big show with Merloni and Fauria and just crush Felger and the parrot. that is my dream. Those two cunts on the Hub and anti-Patriots agenda needs to go down!

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    1. Flem and the bicth. I didn’t know that show is still on the air. They have been off my radio since last Sept. I rather listen to bubble gum Rick than those two. Take the plunge turn them off

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    2. I believe ‘EEI could win those slots. I really do. As much as people hate Felger and how 98.5 has become his empire, they’re ripe for the fall.

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  17. The impact of Tomase’s slimy work really can’t be understated. I was just reading Wetzel’s latest column at Yahoo and it seems like EVERY commentary is about the Patriots’ “history of cheating,” with the “filming practices” canard repeated over and over, ad nauseum. Even after the Herald retracted the story and publicly apologized, the narrative remains. The Patriots should have sued the Herald, if only to leave a more indelible public record.

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    1. LTD brought up a story about a Bears fan on a plane.

      Want to know what happened yesterday, unless the market had more pressing matters? This was still brought up.

      They should have sued. It reminds me of the Duke LAX case. Not only did the DA lose their job, but the ‘defendants’ settled. Sadly, the media and others involved who jumped on the bandwagon faced no consequences (lots of professors there). I viewed that as the real rubber stamp that someone seriously f-d up and didn’t do their job.

      Thinking back now, Kraft should have sued. Unfortunately, as much as I hate that option and think its so abused, it’d at least be the warning shot across the bow to some of the absolutely irresponsible journalism that goes on in this market with the team.

      And, Phil Zachary, if you were considering presenting Kraft with a slide deck as per a thread below here, just remember that you now have this guy on your payroll.

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      1. If I were Bob Kraft I would buy a radio station ( I do not think there are any independent stations left int he Boston market but I am sure he could figure out how to get one.). I would make it a Fox Sports affiliate. I would make it the flagship of the Pats and the Revs. I would give the on air hosts the following orders:

        Be fair, don’t rush to judgement, encourage debate and slam the Globe, Herald, WEEI and 98.5 early, often and as hard as you can.

        I would listen.

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        1. That is what Dan Snyder did in Washington. Doesn’t really matter since the team is such a joke.

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          1. Snyder’s tactics were also well-known long before that, See his dealings with, I think, Washington City Paper (Deadspin and others have chronicled it). Since he bought the station there, he’s fired at least one person for negative comments about the team.

            He’s as bad, if not worse, than FSG.

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    1. I wonder if this is a direct reaction to Callahan and Minihane double teaming Scheffer about Mort. I wonder if Scheffer got off the phone and told someone at ESPN…we need to get Mort out there because Kraft just called him out and the Boston media wants answers.

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      1. Wondered the same. Currently, it’s only an issue people care about here; It’d be another thing if it became national. The question in Bristol would be, “why would we care about some chickensh-t sports talk station in Boston? We’re ESPN.” However, I wonder if some of their news execs are doing it as preparation for it becoming a national issue? At the same time, they’re mainstream and quite used to putting propaganda out there to placate their partners. It’s not the first nor last time this situation will happen.

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  20. Lets get Ordway back on afternoons. He’s the only guy capable of taking on F&M. His ratings were better right before he got fired than what they been since and now. Send D&H back to middays where that show belongs.

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  21. D&H middays would crush Felger Lite and Zo. I feel bad for Zo because I like him but the Felger youth movement needs to die. It’s infecting and spreading across the airwaves and it needs to end now. This town can only handle the one original one. His copycats are just god awful.

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  22. End of July and sports talk consists of breaking down the judge pool selection..

    “My sources are telling me Judge Richard Berman eats his Fruity Pebbles in the morning with the spoon in his left hand. I also read somewhere that he uses only organic products in his garden. Ergo, he’s a liberal judge and Tom Brady is going to win!!!!!!!!”

    (Should the Red Sox send flowers and a gift basket to 1 Patriots Place?)

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  23. Big theme in this whole mess has been the number of media members who didn’t believe Goodell before but now do. This from September 8, 2014, when TMZ leaked the Rice video. So, we’re not even a year removed, in which Goodell has, if anything, looked even worse.

    “I believe they’d already seen it, so what a bunch of gutless cowards.
    The scandal now is all the lying and covering up,” said Felger

    “Now they’re terminating the contract because we’ve seen it [TMZ Rice Video]?
    Gutless, cowardly. They deserve to get hammered for this – and they
    will. Roger Goodell deserves to get hammered for this — and he will.”

    Felger does not believe either Goodell or the Ravens’ claims that they
    did not see the video until it was released by TMZ on Monday.

    “The league saw it, the team saw it, and they gave him two games. Now
    they’re lying about it and the ‘bleep’ is going to hit the fan. It’s
    disgusting.”

    I’m sure there’s more on the video linked to the page, but I have 0 inclination to list more quotes, because the excerpts alone are great.

    http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/09/08/felger-ravens-nfl-both-gutless-cowards/

    (h/t D+C twitter feed.)

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    1. That, more than almost anything else, is what burns me up about this. The NFL and Goodell are stone-cold liars on just about every single topic as far as the media are concerned (and me, too, for that matter) — unless the topic is an alleged rules transgression committed by the Evil Empire in Foxboro. Then, the PATRIOTS are the liars and Goodell/the NFL are the truth tellers. Because…Spygate, and their “pattern of cheating” (don’t bother with the specifics, because there are none); and because they taped the Rams walkthrough (oh wait, they didn’t do that….eff it, we’ll say they did anyway because everyone believes that to be the truth). God, I hate the media so much.

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    2. Great takedown. It’s just amazing how they don’t believe him when the stakes were HIGH, but they believe him now when the stakes are low.

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    3. As a follow-up, I guess this was on one of CSNNE’s #HOTSPORTZTAKEZ shows last night:

      Felger: Walt Anderson ‘the one guy I believe’ in Deflategate

      http://www.csnne.com/video_content_type/felger-walt-anderson-one-guy-i-believe-deflategate

      The same “Walt Anderson” who couldn’t even remember what gauge he used?

      Referee Walt Anderson didn’t clearly recall which gauge he used to set
      the pressure in the Patriots balls at 12.5 PSI before the game.

      “I think it was the one armed man who shot him!”

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    1. By far and away the best legal analysis I have read on Deflategate. The single most important thing I came away from her summary with was that process is not on the NFL’s side.

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    2. I find this quote to sum this situation up perfectly. Also, it’s become clear to me that the NFL was not interested in making the problem go away. Instead they just kept pulling a Donald Trump, and doubled down on everything.

      From the above article:
      “Assume for a second that Tom Brady and all Patriots personnel were innocent of all of this. That what happened in the game was normal ball deflation due to difference in temperatures, conditions and ball use. Assume that they did nothing wrong, and it was the initial wrong reports that encouraged the league to do an investigation.

      What evidence is sufficient enough to prove that negative to the satisfaction of the NFL and Ted Wells? Testimony under oath was insufficient. Multi-hour questioning in front of many lawyers denying it was insufficient. Studies involving ball deflation and noting agreed problems with accurate ball measurements was insufficient.

      I can’t fathom any type of evidence that would have been persuasive to Ted Wells and the NFL.”

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      1. He backed out of his appearance on the D&C show. Claiming he wasn’t going to allow EEI and Kraft to use him.

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        1. Thank you…have not turned on a radio yet. This is not going to look good for him. Now he is going to get skewered nationally…something that should have been done 6 months ago.

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        2. Isn’t that what it does every time he writes about…. what source said….. . He is being used like a toothless ho.

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    1. If they bring Ordway back…I think he the midday is a better spot for him that drive time. Further, I think the rotating cohosts where he is the ring leader/ driver of conversation is his most logical role. The issue I have is that if they slide him into Benz’s seat and couple him with Utility Lou and Fauria the show will be awful. If Lou got his butt kicked by Gresh and Zo and then MFB got’s its butt kicked by Bertrand and Zolak…maybe the issue is more than just Mike Muttanski and Tim Benz?

      I can see them putting Big O in the big chair and then rotating the younger guys in on a regular basis like the old Big Show…maybe slide Picard into Pete Sheppard’s old role. That would be the best solution. I doubt it will come to fruition.

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  30. I haven’t read or listened to a thing the fat, red Tomato has spouted since that story and I’ll continue to do so. Thanks for fighting the good fight!!

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