Thursday, April 3, 2008
An Open Letter to Matt Walsh
Dear Mr. Walsh,
Enough is enough. It was fun for a while, but now it's just getting ridiculous.
It's time to put up or shut up.
Your insistence to draw out this Spygate drama as long as possible is beginning to effect my ability to enjoy the greatest sport on Earth.
I just recently witnessed one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets in NFL history. Yet, I can't enjoy it because of this dark cloud you've cast over my team. Your insinuations and accusations have almost completely destroyed the NFL for me.
Right now, I'm having a hard time being a fan. And it's because of you.
The sad part is, I personally don't believe you have anything of substance.
I mean, if you did, wouldn't you have come forward already?
You claim this has been a strain on your family. If I were in that position, I would want this to go away as soon as possible. As soon as the NFL offered me legal protection, I would have hopped on the next NFL funded plane ride to the NFL Network studio with every piece of evidence I had.
Yet you claim scheduling conflicts and continue to delay coming forward.
I've been a Patriots fan since the day I was born. I grew up, not watching them on TV, but listening to them on the radio (because there were a lot of blackouts back in the '80s).
I've suffered through 2-14 seasons. I've suffered through 1-15 seasons. I've suffered through Tony Eason and Dick Macpherson (luckily, not at the same time ... that would have been way too much to handle).
Heck, we even had a guy who might have been legally dead coach the team for a season (Rod Rust).
But this is the first time I've ever considered walking away. I'm just not enjoying it anymore. I'd take 10 straight 2-14 seasons over this offseason anyday.
And it's not because I'm disgusted with the Patriots. I'm disappointed in what they did, but they broke a rule and paid a steep penalty (a first round draft pick, especially a late first round pick, is GOLD for teams like the Patriots).
The penalty should have been enough.
Not on the message boards and the comments sections of these articles (this will always be fair game for opposing fans), but on ESPN or the NFL Network this should have already become a footnote of an interesting and exciting season.
The Patriots made it to the Super Bowl undefeated, and lost. Everyone should be happy. Everyone got what they wanted. Lots of excitement and a great upset. It was a fantastic season, thanks in part to the Patriots and what they inevitably failed to accomplish.
But there's you, Matt Walsh.
There's a ridiculous Senator from Philadelphia who still hasn't gotten over the 2004 Super Bowl. There's the constant presence of Patriot haters on ESPN that just love to bring up Spygate.
I should be ridiculed because my team lost a game they should have won and failed to make history. They choked, were beaten up, and failed miserably.
Yet the Super Bowl loss is an afterthought because of you, Mr. Walsh.
Should Patriot fans be treated any differently than the Bronco fans who rooted for their team as they won a Super Bowl while cheating on the salary cap?
Heck, I'm not sure most Broncos fans even know they cheated on the cap during Elway's Super Bowls. Why? Because the infraction was found, they were punished, and everyone moved on.
Your ridiculous play for 15 minutes of fame is preventing everyone from moving on. It's allowing moron Senators to waste taxpayer money grandstanding and threatening the NFL in the slim hopes that he'll find out that the Patriots' videotaping practices cost his team the Super Bowl and not their franchise quarterback's inability to stop puking on himself in a huge situation.
It's time to end this crap. It's time to put up or shut up.
If you have something, come forward and I'll take my beating as a Patriots fan like a man.
But if you have nothing, then just go the hell away.
Put up or shut up.
Regards,
SeanMC
Patriots fan since 1979
SeanMC is a senior writer for Bleacher Report and writes a column for Sports Central every other Thursday. You can read more articles by SeanMC on his blog.