More Spygate News...

The New England Patriots' pattern of illicitly videotaping the signals of opposing NFL coaches began in Coach Bill Belichick's first preseason with the team in 2000, a former Patriots player said. The information was put to use in that year's regular-season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Belichick's debut as New England's coach the New York Times reported.
The secret taping of signals, which is against league rules, continued at least through three championship seasons to the 2007 season opener against the Jets, when the Patriots were caught and subsequently sanctioned by the league. As coaches and executives gathered here Thursday for the NFL scouting combine, many saying they were satisfied with the league's investigation and ready to move on, new details were emerging about the history of the Patriots' videotaping. According to several executives in the league, the season opener against the Jets was not the first time the Patriots had been spotted taping another team's defensive coaches at Giants Stadium. In the final preseason game of 2006, the Patriots were caught taping a Giants defensive assistant giving signals, the executives said. Source: New York Times

In other news, Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel plans to test the free agent market after failing to sign a long-term deal with the Patriots.

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Belichick Has Been Taping Since 2000

Bill Belichick has been illegally taping opponents' defensive signals since he became the New England Patriots' coach in 2000, according to Sen. Arlen Specter, who said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told him that during a meeting Wednesday. "There was confirmation that there has been taping since 2000, when Coach Belichick took over," Specter said. Specter said Goodell gave him that information during the 1-hour, 40-minute meeting, which was requested by Specter so the commissioner could explain his reasons for destroying the Spygate tapes and notes. "There were a great many questions answered by Commissioner Goodell," Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters after the meeting. "I found a lot of questions unanswerable because of the tapes and notes had been destroyed." Goodell said Belichick told him he believed the taping was legal; Goodell said he did not concur. "He said that's always been his interpretation since he's been the head coach," the commissioner said. "We are going to agree to disagree on the facts." Specter, from Pennsylvania, wants to talk to other league officials about what exactly was taped and which games may have been compromised.

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Patriots May Have Taped 2002 Rams Practice

The New England Patriots Saturday denied filming the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI. "The suggestion that the New England Patriots [team stats] recorded the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 is absolutely false," the club said in a statement. "Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue." NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league investigated the claim and found no evidence of wrongdoing. The Boston Herald cited a source Saturday who said a member of the Patriots' video department filmed the Rams' walkthrough the day before the game. It was not known if the coaching staff viewed the tape or if the cameraman was instructed to record it. New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica noted in his Sunday Super Bowl column that Mike Martz told ESPN Saturday that in Super Bowl XXXVI, the St. Louis Rams finally started drawing up red zone plays on the sideline because the New England Patriots kept acting like they knew what was coming. And while they have denied it, the Patriots may have taped a Rams walkthrough before that Super Bowl game.
There is a reason why the Giants moved their training site around this week, and it wasn't because they wanted to see more sites in the desert.

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