Walsh is nothing more than a coward

May 16, 2008 03:47 am

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Bill Burt

Geraldo Rivera and that empty Al Capone vault have nothing on Matt Walsh.

Other than some scalped Super Bowl tickets and the "illegal" practicing of an injured player, Walsh had nothing on the Patriots. Famously, there was no tape of the St. Louis Rams Saturday walkthrough.

Did he forget about the third-string quarterback spitting on the sidewalk? That's a crime, you know.

By the time this is being read, Walsh will be back to his day job as assistant golf professional at the beautiful Kaanapali Country Club in Maui.

He was able to fool/con a few people, stir the pot, and maybe, just maybe, play a minute role in staining what was nearly one of the greatest seasons in professional sports history.

I guess, that's why we've seen that irritable smirk the former Patriots video assistant had in both New York City and Washington, D.C.

We were hoping for the press conference, one open to the public. But instead he only spoke to his guys and then bolted back to the Aloha State.

But Walsh didn't have it in him. He was, as expected, a coward.

While a Boston sportswriter's promising career is being spit on — my hunch because of promises relayed through or from Hawaii — Walsh is back in hiding.

The Patriots have to relive the "Spygate" embarrassment all over again. Because there was no Rams Super Bowl walkthrough tape, we are back talking about the same stories we talked about in September.

America is back on the "Hatriots" bandwagon again. Outside of New England, their dynasty will always have an asterisk.

But I have to get back to Walsh.

We learned that Walsh, not the Patriots or Bill Belichick or the media, did the most vile thing during this whole fiasco.

Acting on his own, it was Walsh, who was setting up a camera at the time, who happened to glance at the Rams walkthrough. It was he who figured out that Marshall Faulk was catching punts.

Rather than eat the information, like an honest man would do, he did what he is famous for: He bragged.

He told Patriots assistant Brian Daboll, who is now the New York Jets quarterback coach, what he saw. We now realize that wasn't much.

It was Walsh who pulled the slimy move of watching the walkthrough, trying to steal something. Nobody told him to perform that pathetic act. It was all him.

Well, that story, like a lot of Walsh's stories, grew more dramatic every time he told it.

I go back to that Feb. 1 story in Hawaii by ESPN.com's Mike Fish, when Matt Walsh's name became a household name.

With the Patriots already fined ($500,000 for Belichick, $250,000 for the organization) and penalized (1st round pick), Walsh appeared to be having fun, leaving many people to theorize there had to be much more to the story.

The day after the ESPN.com story, the Boston Herald came out with a story stating a source said a Patriots employee illegally taped the St. Louis Rams walkthrough the day before the Super Bowl in 2002.

Instead, it was simply a cheater watching a walkthrough he wasn't supposed to be watching, and running back to his bosses with the information.

In the end, Walsh, who was fired in January 2003 for secretly taping conversations between himself and vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli, got what he wanted. He wanted the Patriots on their knees. Again.

Like a small-time magician, he did it with nothing other than some smoke and mirrors.

Where was Geraldo when we needed him?

E-mail Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.

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