Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando
Patriots owner Robert Kraft says he feels vindicated by the Boston Herald's apology for its botched story about the Super Bowl XXXVI walk-through.
"We do," Kraft told his CNBC interviewer. "I felt very good seeing this paper because we've worked very hard over the last decade and a half to establish a strong bond with our fans, where they could trust and believe in the integrity of the team. This story coming out the day before the Super Bowl, the biggest game in our history, going for a perfect season, was very damaging and put a cloud over us for the last three and a half months. I'm glad it's finally come to an end."
The Herald headlines read, "Sorry, Pats" and "Our mistake" -- both viewable here. The apology notes that the Herald based its original story on sources, plural, that it thought to be credible. The original story mentioned a single source. The Herald does not name the source or sources who provided the information it now acknowledges to be erroneous.
The timing of the apology -- one day after former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh told the league that he knew of no such walk-through video -- suggests what had been assumed: that even though the original story never mentioned Walsh by name, its contents likely were based on a belief that Walsh possessed, knew about or participated in producing such a tape.
