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Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

As much as the Patriots were looking forward to changing the subject from Spygate at their minicamp beginning Friday, it's safe to assume they weren't looking foward to talking about the illegal possession of prescription painkillers.

Right tackle Nick Kaczur's reported arrest and work as an informant is dominating headlines in Boston. How he handles the situation could have great sway over what the story becomes for the Patriots.

Brett Favre became a sympathetic figure when he came clean about a reliance on pain killers more than a decade ago. We don't know if Kaczur has any such problem or if he has been implicated fairly. The courts will figure out that part. But we do know honesty in the beginning can head off bigger problems in the future.

Football is brutal on the body. A veteran offensive lineman told me this week that he knows he'll pay a heavy price for the long list of knee, ankle, hand, finger, shoulder, back and foot injuries that come with the job. Pain medication and anti-inflammatories are part of life for many of those guys. The lure of taking prescription-caliber medication to play through injuries must be strong for players who could find themselves out of work, and suddenly without six- or seven-figure salaries, if they miss playing time.

Kaczur has yet to comment publicly except for telling reporters he had no idea what they were talking about. He'll have plenty of time in the future to explain his side of the story. What he says and how he says it could have lasting implications.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Joey Porter's comments to Trey Wingo on NFL Live should make for entertaining fodder when the Dolphins play the Patriots this season. Miami visits New England on Sept. 21. The teams play in Miami on Nov. 23. Here goes Porter uncensored:

"They cheated. There should be an asterisk on it, just because Marion Jones, she get caught, they take the gold medals back. Obviously, they got caught. If it wasn't that bad, why would you destroy the evidence? If you have nothing to hide why would you destroy it? ...

"Why destroy something that don't have to be destroyed? Let everybody see what was on the tape. Why you going to destroy it so fast? I think it must have been that bad to where they didn't want anybody else to see it. They had to be that bad - to destroy it, so nobody else could see it.

"If it wasn't helping nobody, why did you do it? If Tom Brady wasn't getting help out of it, then why would you do it every week? And everyone wants to wonder how these guys just went from zero to 60 overnight. That'll do it for you."

One player's comments hardly represent the majorty. Porter is known for speaking his mind. That will be the interesting part of this. How many high-profile players feel this way and will speak out this way as time passes? Dolphins fans might be wondering why Porter is giving the Patriots ammunition, but these types of comments lose their bulletin-board value as more and more people make them.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Boston Globe reporter Mike Reiss dove into his weekly mailbag column expecting to discover a Patriots fan base that had grown weary of the attention given to Spygate. Instead he encountered another round of Spygate-related questions, which he answered at some length. The part that resonated most with me was his take on the basis for some of Sen. Arlen Specter's comments at his news conference last week:

As for my opinion on some of Specter's comments, I found them to be eye-opening in this aspect: he was quoting the New York Times as a reference, as well as ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth, to support his case. One that jumped out to me was when he was referencing an article from the Sunday New York Times (May 11) that included several mistakes implicating the Patriots that were later corrected (e.g. clock operators are hired by the NFL and not teams; the game-day monitoring of the communication device between the coach and quarterback is done by the NFL, not teams). Also, Specter's floor statement was filled with mistakes. I was surprised at this.

People quoted in the nearly 3,700-word mailbag column appeared to have grown weary of certain aspects of coverage, including coverage provided by a "national media" that includes the New York Times, ESPN and ESPN.com. Some wanted to know why former Pats video assistant Matt Walsh wasn't viewed more skeptically.

Among the things likely to be viewed more skeptically in the future: stories citing a single anonymous source. My perception is that such stories have become more common. As the mailbag column notes, the Globe recently distributed a memo reminding employees of policies regarding anonymous sources.

Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley

In case you haven't read the Boston Herald over the past couple of days, the comments section on Patriots beat writer John Tomase's blog has been shut down. Apparently New England fans are taking out some of their frustration over Spygate on Tomase, and in some ways, that's to be expected.

A few days ago, I had a tough time mustering much sympathy for someone who took, as he put it, a "devastating leap" in order to break a huge story. But as I've had more time to reflect, I don't think the Herald is helping Tomase by leaving him on the Patriots beat. First of all, why haven't we heard more from his actual editor on the story?

Tomase's taking most of the blame, but he desperately needed someone to keep him in check as he fought to write the story. I think we heard from the Herald's editor during the three-day retraction series, but the NFL editor should also bear some of the blame.

Noted author Seth Mnookin, who wrote a book on the scandals at The New York Times, offers a defense of Tomase on his blog. He makes some interesting points, although its should be noted that he and Tomase are friends and once collaborated on a Red Sox book together.

"Ironically, at the end of the day, the net result of Tomase's story is likely positive for the Patriots," writes Mnookin. "The larger storyline -- that the Patriots had been caught breaking NFL rules multiple times -- has become one about media malfeasance and how the team was unfairly accused of breaking NFL rules on one single occasion."

If I'm the Herald, I would instruct Tomase to take a month off to clear his head. The man has suddenly become a household name for all the wrong reasons. Asking him to continue covering the team in this current environment borders on cruelty. I'm sure Tomase thinks that he can restore his reputation by doing a solid job on the beat, but that's not going to happen. Patriots fans know that their Super Bowl titles will always be tainted from a national perspective, and they need someone to blame for that -- other than Bill Belichick.

The best thing the Herald could do right now is re-assign Tomase to another beat. It would benefit him, and more importantly, the newspaper's audience.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

People associated with NFL teams have generally backed the league in its Spygate findings, at least in public. Chris Brown, who writes for the Buffalo Bills' web site, expresses a different view while addressing Matt Walsh's comments to HBO.

Under a headline reading, "Just as I feared," Brown writes, in part, "In excerpts from the interview released by HBO, Walsh explains how the Patriots were given an edge that I thought was very real, but the NFL chose to dismiss as minimal."

Opinions relating to Spygate differ in and out of the league, of course, but the NFL has generally kept a united front in its public comments. Brown, described as the "lead journalist" on the team's site, is frequently outspoken in his assessments.

Adds Brown: "The veracity of Walsh's statements will never be fully known since there's probably no one on this planet that will corroborate his claims, but you don't conduct such practices for eight years unless it provides an advantage. This was the advantage I feared existed. By no means am I dismissing the talent and ability of the Patriots as a team this decade, but if what Walsh says is accurate there should've been stiffer punishment than a fine and a draft pick."

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has repeatedly downplayed the significance of information the Patriots gleaned from improper videotaping. He has also defended the punishment handed out the Patriots. 

Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley

Is it just me or is the Boston Herald going a little overboard with its retraction trilogy? What started as a front-page apology in Wednesday's print and online editions has now stretched into Day 3.

When I checked the newspaper's Web site for its latest mea culpa Thursday evening, I was startled to see the huge headline, "Tomase: How It Went Wrong."

The story is written by Patriots beat writer John Tomase, who offers a detailed explanation on how his rush to break a story contributed to an egregious mistake. Call me cynical, but I'm wondering if the Herald runs this embarrassing apology if Patriots owner Robert Kraft is threatening to sue.

You can bet that the newspaper's attorneys took a long look at Tomase's explanation. At least I hope they did. If the paper truly wanted to appear vigilant in its apology, it would've issued one well before Wednesday. The Herald didn't need to wait for Tuesday's meeting between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh to know it had made a colossal error in judgment.

I thought my colleague Mike Sando made an excellent point in his blog entry from earlier this morning: We care about "scoops" way more than our readers do. Contrary to what some people in our profession might think, most fans aren't charting who breaks the most stories. But when you get one wrong -- in this case horribly so -- it can break the trust you've established with readers.

Every writer on this blog has been in a highly competitive situation, so it's easy to identify with the pressure Tomase was feeling on such a major story. But still, being first isn't worth ruining your reputation.

Does John Tomase deserve a second chance? I think he does. But the Herald's plan to keep him on the Patriots beat seems completely misguided. In fact, I was shocked to see him representing the paper at Sen. Arlen Specter's news conference in Washington on Wednesday.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

John Tomase, the Boston Herald reporter whose erroneous story about Spygate prompted an apology this week, has explained his position. A key passage:

"First and foremost, this is about a writer breaking one of the cardinal rules of journalism. I failed to keep challenging what I had been told.

"I had repeatedly heard that this walkthrough had been taped, and from people I trusted. Eventually I accepted it as fact and stopped questioning the assertion.

"The confirmed presence of a member of the team's video staff at the walkthrough reinforced my belief that it was filmed. Secondhand sourcing took on added weight. When I got word that other reporters had picked up the scent, it only steeled my resolve not to get beat."

As Tomase acknowledged, this simply cannot happen. The pressure not to get beat can never carry an inaccurate story into publication. At a critical moment, Tomase's fear of reading the story elsewhere outweighed the fear of getting the story wrong. Of course, readers generally don't care which reporter had a story first. Reporters keep score a lot more closely than readers. But if you get a story wrong -- particularly a story with major ramifications such as this one -- readers never forget.

Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley

I think anyone who believes that the Boston Herald didn't realize it had made a serious mistake until after the Matt Walsh-Roger Goodell meeting Tuesday is being pretty naive. The newspaper may have taken the "unprecedented" step to apologize to the Patriots on the front page Wednesday, but I thought it came across as somewhat flippant -- and late.

As a tabloid, it's difficult for the Herald to suddenly start acting like a bastion of journalistic integrity. Blaring the headline "Sorry, Pats!" across the front page doesn't really reflect a sincere apology. And neither did a retraction in which the paper said that John Tomase based his infamous Super Bowl walk-through on "sources" when the actual story cited one source.

That might sound like a minor point, but it's pretty important when you're trying to establish where this story fell apart. In this morning's paper we hear from Herald editor Kevin Convey. He stands behind Tomase, which isn't easy to do right now. And he praises him for the work he's done under "intense pressure."

Will Tomase remain on the Patriots beat next season? I would be shocked if he did. It wouldn't be a good situation for him, the newspaper or its readers.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

The Patriots are no longer considering a lawsuit against the Boston Herald now that the newspaper has apologized for its erroneous Spygate story, the Boston Globe notes. Herald editor Kevin R. Convey took responsibility for the mistake, while reporter John Tomase plans to elaborate on what went wrong Friday.

The thought of attorneys calling as witnesses Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, Ernie Adams and others in the Patriots organization might appeal from a selling-papers standpoint. But the Herald, which not long ago lost a prominent libel case, appears to be taking steps to avoid liability. Tomase's explanation becomes the next step.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Howard Wasserman, associate professor of law at Florida International University, argues that politicians have no business trying to hold the NFL accountable to outside standards in the Spygate case. Sen. Arlen Specter's call for an "impartial" investigation strikes Wasserman as misplaced.

"Reading the statement, Specter talks about sports as big business, the league's antitrust exemption, and the role-model status of professional athletes. But none of that justifies congressional involvement simply to ensure that the league is abiding by its own internal rules. And it certainly does not justify Congress trying to tell the NFL how to run its business -- again, absent some actual law or legislative proposal." -- Wasserman, via Sports Law Blog

Specter stopped short of saying he would encourage colleagues to open an investigation.  

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter has finished making statements and taking questions about the Patriots' improper videotaping practices. Beyond calling for an independent investigation, Specter indicated that former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh told him coaches met with a Patriots player to discuss how the videotaping evidence would be put to use to the Patriots' advantage. This would have been in advance of a 2000 game against Tampa Bay. Walsh did not give Specter permission to reveal the player's identity.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter said he found former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh to be credible based on his experience as an investigator.

"I've talked to a lot of witnesses in my day, and he told a very coherent story, and when he came to the [main] issue on the walk-through, where he had already been derided in the press for not disclosing early that he didn't have them, he was very modest," Specter said. "He was very modest in his approach. I think he is a very fine young man. ... He appeared very credible."

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter said he thinks an independent investigation into Spygate is warranted, but he described this as "one man's opinion" and not an indication that he will pressure anyone in Congress to take up an investigation. He said he'll leave it up to colleagues to make up their own minds as to the merits of an investigation.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter said former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh indicated he saw the Jets taping signals at one point during a Jets-Patriots game, but Walsh did not say anything about it at the time. Specter also thinks the NFL hasn't done enough to investigate the Patriots' taping practices in 2003, 2004 and 2005, even though Walsh told Specter he observed, from the stands, the Patriots taping signals after Walsh had left the organization as an employee.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter stopped short of alleging an NFL cover-up in the investigation of Spygate, saying he needed more information before making such a remark. "Cover-up is a very strong term," Specter said. "I'm not going to adopt it." Specter then paused before saying, "Yet."

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter described NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as a likeable guy who appears to be "caught in a very heavy conflict of interest" or at least an "apparent" conflict of interest. "The league has every reason not to want to say too much," Specter said in televised remarks Wednesday. That is among the reasons Specter is supporting an impartial investigation into Spygate, given the special place the NFL enjoys in society and the importance that the league remain in high regard.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter, in televised remarks about the Spygate investigation, used comments ESPN's Mark Schlereth made Tuesday to support the idea that New England could have made in-game adjustments based on the improperly videotaped signals. Schlereth said the Patriots could have realized advantages from taping signals and using the information to make halftime adjustments. This is one of the reasons Specter said he thinks an impartial investigator should look into Spygate and its implications.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter, in comments made during an ongoing news conference regarding Spygate, characterized as "ridiculous" the tack taken by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in "pooh-poohing" the matter through his statements Tuesday. Specter also said he was troubled that the NFL destroyed notes and tapes associated with the investigation. He called it "incomprehensible" and an "insult" to the intelligence of people who follow the matter. Specter also said you could not "sell in kindergarten" the explanation Goodell provided for destroying the evidence.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter has called for an investigation of Spygate similar to the one former Sen. George Mitchell conducted regarding steroids and baseball. Specter made the call during an ongoing news conference following his meeting with former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh.

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.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Sen. Arlen Specter is expected to speak about his conversations with former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh at noon ET Wednesday. That is the latest from the ESPN news desk. This gives Specter a chance to regroup overnight while stretching this into a two-day story.

Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley

Either Sen. Arlen Specter plans to interview Matt Walsh well into the evening or he simply wants his very own news cycle. I'm guessing it's the latter. Hashmarks just made a call to NFL Live host Trey Wingo to see if he's booked another SportsCenter Special for Wednesday, but I don't see it happening.

It certainly sounded like NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was seeking closure today, but then, he previously thought that was the case when he punished the Patriots in September. On Tuesday, he was once again asked to defend what he referred to as the "unprecedented" action he took against the franchise.

He seems incredulous when the topic comes up, but now that we know that the videotaping had been taking place as far back as 2000, it's a fair question to ask. At the time, $750,000 in fines and the removal of a first-round draft choice sounded a lot more harsh than it does now.

The tone of the Patriots' press release is predictably indignant:

"We want to address the allegation that the Patriots taped the Rams' walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. For the past three-and-a-half months, we have been defending ourselves against assumptions made based on an unsubstantiated report rather than on facts or evidence.

"Despite our adamant denials, the report ran on February 2, 2008, the day before Super Bowl XLII. That game was the second-most watched program in television history and it is unfortunate that today's news will not also reach an audience of that size.

"We hope that with Matt Walsh's disclosures, everyone will finally believe what we have been saying all along and emphatically stated on the day of the initial report: 'The suggestion that the New England Patriots recorded the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 is absolutely false. Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue.' "

Something tells me the Patriots still don't feel properly vindicated. Perhaps a lawsuit against the Boston Herald might make them feel better, but it's not going to make Spygate go away. Like it or not, the franchise -- and the league to a lesser extent -- will bear the scars of this scandal for years to come.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

We're getting word from the ESPN news desk that Sen. Arlen Specter has pushed his Matt Walsh news conference to tomorrow. This will surely disappoint those who have complained here about the short supply of Spygate-related coverage.

A spokesman for Specter said, "There is not likely to be a statement issued from our office today. The meeting got started late. The meeting is expected to go a lot longer."

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

The Steelers have released a Spygate-related statement backing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quotes the Steelers this way:

"We are satisfied with Commissioner Goodell's conclusion that nothing new was discovered after this morning's meeting with Matt Walsh. The NFL did a thorough investigation that spanned several months." -- Steelers owner Dan Rooney

New England taped coaching signals in games involving the Steelers.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

The Patriots recently released the following statement following Matt Walsh's meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell regarding Spygate:

"We want to address the allegation that the Patriots taped the Rams' walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. For the past three-and-a-half months, we have been defending ourselves against assumptions made based on an unsubstantiated report rather than on facts or evidence.

"Despite our adamant denials, the report ran on February 2, 2008, the day before Super Bowl XLII. That game was the second-most watched program in television history and it is unfortunate that today's news will not also reach an audience of that size.

"We hope that with Matt Walsh's disclosures, everyone will finally believe what we have been saying all along and emphatically stated on the day of the initial report: 'The suggestion that the New England Patriots recorded the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 is absolutely false. Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue.' "

The Patriots are again challenging the initial Boston Herald report suggesting the Patriots taped the Rams' walk-through practice before Super Bowl XXXVI.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh and his representation have arrived at Sen. Arlen Specter's office at the Hart Building for their planned meeting about Spygate. That was the word moments ago from our reporters on the ground.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell continued to reject Bill Belichick's contention that the Patriots simply misinterpreted the rule banning teams from taping coaching signals. Goodell said this point came across clearly during his meeting with former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh.

"It was very clear that he had to be careful that nobody discovered what he was doing. That he was very cautious about when he did it, who was watching, and there were certain places he did not get access. A lot of teams said, 'We're not going to allow another camera up here on the third level or the end zone level. Matt believes they believe they were well aware of the fact that this was something that shouldn't be done." -- Goodell

According to Goodell, Walsh told him that Patriots video director Jimmy Dee was the person who told Walsh to be careful about not getting caught, and that Dee was the person Walsh dealt with directly. "Once in a while, I guess Ernie Adams would give him some instructions, but it was very infrequent," Goodell said.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

The most recent public remarks from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell -- namely that former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh provided no new information of significance about New England's improper videotaping practices -- are likely to differ in style and substance from what Sen. Arlen Specter says following his subsequent meeting with Walsh.

Specter has consistently attacked the league's handling of the case. Goodell makes comments with the best interests of the league in mind. Specter has invested quite a bit of capital in the idea that the league has sought to protect itself at the expense of a thorough investigation. That viewpoint surely will come through when Specter speaks on the matter.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

Former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh told commissioner Roger Goodell that he passed along information from the Rams' walk-through before Super Bowl XXXVI to a Patriots assistant coach, ESPN's Sal Paolantonio reported.

Paolantonio attributed the information to a league attorney present at the news conference and present in the meeting. The Boston Globe has a transcript here.

Walsh provided this information when questioned by NFL security chief Milt Ahlerich. Two things Walsh said he passed along to a Patriots assistant: Rams running back Marshall Faulk lined up as a kick returner during the walk-through, and the Rams rolled a tight end a certain way based on a certain look from the defense.

We can never know much credence the Patriots might have given to information provided by a low-level video assistant through an assistant coach one day before a game. We can confirm that Faulk returned a single kickoff for a single yard against the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI. Rams tight ends Ernie Conwell and Jeff Robinson caught four passes for 26 yards.

Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

A few highlights from Roger Goodell's recently concluded news conference following the commissioner's meeting with former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh:

• Walsh provided no new information that would lead the commissioner to revisit Spygate or the penalties levied against the Patriots;
• Walsh knew nothing about any Saturday walk-through tape prior to Super Bowl XXXVI;
• Walsh provided information that was fundamentally consistent with what the league disciplined the Patriots for last fall;
• Walsh handed tapes to Patriots executive Ernie Adams, at which point Walsh became unaware of what happened to them (more on Adams);
• Walsh confirmed that he was aware of no additional violations of league policy by the Patriots in relation to improper videotaping practices;
• Walsh provided information about a player on injured reserve practicing against league rules in 2001, which the league will investigate;
• Walsh provided information about Patriots players scalping tickets before two Super Bowls, a situation the league will investigate.

ESPN's Sal Paolantonio noted that Walsh told Goodell he knew better than to get caught making these tapes, an indication Walsh and the Patriots knew this taping was against the rules. Previously, Patriots coach Bill Belichick indicated he simply misinterpreted the rules.