Mike Martz was “shocked” by apparent changes to statement he gave to the NFL
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profootballtalk.nbcsports.com]
Posted by Mike Florio on September 8, 2015, 10:41 AM EDT
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As we try to digest this new ESPN Patriots Alleged Cheating Opus, I can sympathize with a three-foot snake that’s trying to swallow the leg of an elephant. Buried in the story is a nugget that could prompt someone to try to grab by the tail the tiger that is the NFL.
At some point after the Boston Herald reported in early 2008 that the Patriots had taped the Rams’ walk-through practice before Super Bowl XXXVI, a “panicked” Commissioner Roger Goodell asked former Rams coach Mike Martz to provide a statement “saying that he was satisfied with the NFL’s Spygate investigation and was certain the Patriots had not cheated and asking everyone to move on.”
So Martz provided a statement to the league. And ESPN showed the statement to Martz when interviewing him for the Patriots Alleged Cheating Opus. And Martz didn’t recognize portions of it.
“It shocked me,” Martz told ESPN. “It appears embellished quite a bit — some lines I know I didn’t write. Who changed it? I don’t know.”And that was the end of it, as far as the ESPN Patriots Alleged Cheating Opus is concerned. There was no statement from the league office denying any changes to the statement. There was no apparent effort to procure the original statement, if there was one.
If Martz is right, that’s a huge deal. If the NFL changed in any way a statement from Martz that was used to placate Senator Arlen Specter and to block a Congressional investigation, this is the kind of thing that could turn the NFL into FIFA.
Best,
Laram
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2017 09:21AM by laram.
