The Boston Herald writer who broke the (false) news that the Patriots taped a Rams walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI has issued an apology. John Tomase basically claims that he published a rumor because he heard it from "various" people and solidified it when he heard that Walsh's assertion of skeletons in the Pats' closet. Here's a snippet....

Late in the 2006 season, I was having a casual conversation about the Patriots [team stats] when someone I trust threw out the following tidbit.

“I heard the Patriots filmed the Rams’ final walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI,” he said.

It was just a rumor, and certainly not actionable intelligence, as they say. He had heard it from a friend of a friend. I filed it away, and then forgot about it. Reporters hear stuff like that all the time.

Little did I know that comment would resurface from a much stronger source in the days after the Patriots had been caught filming the Jets’ defensive signals in September 2007.

Turns out I could not have been more wrong. I regret it, and that’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.

He probably should have just ended it there, but he keeps going for another two pages of back story and standing by his original source. I really had never heard of John Tomase until this whole Rams walkthrough thing, and the guy seems genuinely sorry for the story, but seriously.....come on. I really just can't believe that a newspaper published a story based on one unsubstantiated rumor. Especially an allegation this huge. It blows my actually. You are not only gambling with your own career by going ahead with a piece like this, but you're gambling with the whole Newspaper's validity.

If you read the over three hundred comments attached to the apology I think you can find how Bostonians really feel, and as Robert Kraft has explained over the past few days, this is almost unforgivable from the team's standpoint. To lose the trust of a team in the most winning town in the Country is a death sentence, and who's to say the Celtics and Sox are going to trust them either?

There's no way the Pats will give the access back to Tomase he once had, and I'm extremely surprised he still has a job. Everyone deserves a second chance, but some people need a long break to think about what they've done before they get it.

The story behind Herald walkthrough article (Boston Herald)