by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com
“…it’s embarrassing, it’s absurd…”
Yeah, it’s that, all right. Bill Belichick was talking about Matt Walsh, but he could just as well have been tying a bow on this whole episode.
Because it has been nothing but absurdity since last September, and now we have the tight-lipped coaching legend making a surprise appearance on CBS News with Katie Couric last night.
Honestly, I can’t get into a line-by-line on his interview with Armen Keteyian. I’m parsed out, thanks. The details are in the link above (an extended version), and in Mike Reiss’s story this morning.
Other than a short clip of Walsh filming a game against Cleveland, I didn’t see or hear anything I didn’t expect. Belichick – certainly with the team’s support – was clearly there to counter Walsh’s assertion to HBO Sports and the New York Times that the coach knew he was breaking a rule and has lied about it since, and he has lied about the extent of his interaction with Walsh.
Belichick fired back, going out of his way to paint Walsh as a puffed up, resume-fudging creep. Like any good TV interviewee, he brought a clip, evidently a director’s cut of the Cleveland tape Walsh produced in New York on Tuesday. This version focuses not on Butch Davis’s staff but on the former “third video assistant” behind his tripod, near two or three other guys doing the same thing, in broad daylight, in full view of every person in the stadium.
The clip will now be dissected and refuted and defended like everything else has been, and Belichick will no doubt be called a pathological liar by sunset tonight, if it hasn’t happened already. He’ll no doubt be slammed for going back at Walsh, and incredibly, someone will accuse him of “dragging out the story”. That should be enough to cause me to have a stroke. Yet on and on it will go, as the calliope drones.
Look. Have we forgotten that ESPN felt liberated enough to paintshop this guy as the Devil Himself not too long ago? That ever happen to you? Ever been attacked from every corner of the 24 hour news cycle nine months running? Ever had so many people so anxious to believe the worst about you that they would accept unchallenged every word of anonymous assistant golf pro and wagon-hitching hanger-on?
Then I don’t think you can say the guy’s out of line in taking his three minutes to respond to the career embellishments of a corner-cutting, finger-pointing nobody. Enough’s enough.
Patriots Daily 
Scott,
I couldn’t agree with you more.
When I heard that Belichick was going to be on the CBS News last night, I said, “Oh, this is not a good idea”…because I know that the King’s, Easterbrook’s, Schlereth’s, Felger’s, et al, are just going to keep calling him a liar no matter what he says.
And yes, he’s also going to be accused of “dragging this thing out”–I didn’t even think of that one, but you’re absolutely correct.
I guarantee you that Goodell was none too happy to hear about this interview yesterday. There’s no doubt in my mind that since September he’s wanted BB and the Pats to just shut up and take their medicine over this, and I’m sure that the Kraft’s and BB were OK with doing that initially. But then when this thing kept going and going and going, with new and unfounded allegations popping up everywhere, and “coverup” talk splashed across every sports page and website, the Pats no doubt began to realize that keeping their mouths shut and never responding was not exactly the best approach.
The fact that BB will be criticized for even having the temerity to go public and defend himself against Walsh’s embellishments pretty much goes to show you how low the media in this country has sunk.
Believe me, if somebody painted the words “pedophile” on my front door for all to see, and they did it time and time again for 9 months, no matter how many times I washed it off, don’t you think that I’d finally get tired of it and try to fight back too?
The media make me sick. I have a journalism degree, but I knew even 20 years ago when I got out of college that I didn’t want to be one of them…I believe I have too much character and human decency, not to mention too small an ego.
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I agree. But I also think occasionally you have to speak up. I’ve wondered since last September why Patriots PR department didn’t speak up sooner. I think BB did just fine last night. Of course some people will continue believing whatever they choose to believe. But what has BB got to lose with them at this point?
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of course the IRONIC thing is, Belichick got BASHED by the media for remaing silent on “spygate” especially by the holier-than thou Peter King…..now I’ve already read several articles bashing him FOR TALKING about “spygate”……I said at the very beginning, why should Belichick talk?…the agenda driven media was going to say he was lying anyway….Belichick is never going to win with these people….not that I think he really gives a rat’s ass, more power to him.
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING….check out the link>>>
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3394809
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