Old quotes haunt ex-Pat Johnson insists words taken out of context

By Karen Guregian | Monday, February 25, 2008 |
http://www.bostonherald.com | N.E. Patriots

Former Patriots [team stats] linebacker Ted Johnson unwittingly found
himself in the middle of Camera-gate on Friday when a quote of his appeared
in USA Today seemingly supporting spying accusations that have been hurled
against the club.
Only, the remarks, which were made in November 2005, were taken completely
out of context, Johnson said yesterday.
If anything, Johnson, who retired after sustaining multiple concussions in
his career, would be devastated to learn new allegations about taping the
St. Louis Rams walkthrough before the team's first Super Bowl win in 2002
were true.
"I hope to God there's no validity to it. I don't know one player that I
played with over my 10-year career that had any knowledge of the Patriots
doing anything illegal," Johnson said. "So, it would really be
disheartening if we found out there was some truth to this. It would
compromise the efforts of the guys that worked their butts off for those
three rings."
That's why Johnson was confounded when he got numerous phone calls from
media outlets seeking comment about how he supposedly tied the Pats into
the illegal practices being charged.
Here's the quote in question: "Every now and then I'd get a sheet, one hour
before the game, with a list of audibles for our opponent. I don't know
how, but they just showed up."
Those remarks were lumped into a story about Camera-gate, coming after
Indianapolis Colts president Bill Polian stated sideline signals could be
matched to game footage to decipher codes.
"To take a quote from an article I did three years ago and put it in a
recent article with respect to the allegations against the Patriots, with
possibly more evidence coming out on (Camera-gate), and more details, I
think from my standing, it's irresponsible," Johnson said. "I don't see the
connection, to be honest with you. Having said that, I will tell you, it's
not an uncommon practice for us during my playing career to every now and
then get a call sheet about teams you're about to play, and potential
audibles. That's not an uncommon practice."
Johnson explained that coaches have friends on different teams who will
share information. Or if the Pats picked up a player from the team they
were about to play, they'd gather that kind of data from him.
"I don't think a team is doing it's job if you don't interrogate that
player, and find out, 'Hey, what were your audibles?' because they could
potentially be helpful," Johnson said. "And shame on the team if they don't
change them."
As the middle linebacker, Johnson played the role of signal-caller. He'd
call the defense, so knowing the opposing team's audibles would be of
particular help to him.
"To be honest, I was more worried about getting our guys lined up," Johnson
said. "I was worried about Terry Allen ripping my head off, as opposed to
what color Troy Aikman checked into for another play, but that's just me, I
didn't see it as a huge advantage. But that's that. If we got a call sheet
a few hours before the game, I didn't care how it got there. If it got
there and it was going to help me and our team win the game, fine. I never
asked, 'How'd this get here?' If it was there, it was there. I don't see
that as having any relevance to what the Patriots are dealing with now."
Johnson claimed he never saw any evidence of videotaping other team's
signals or walkthroughs. While Johnson bravely placed some blame on his
former coach Bill Belichick for pressuring him to participate in
full-contact practice drills a few days after suffering a concussion, he
didn't indict Belichick in this instance.
"I can without question and with the purest heart say I had no knowledge of
any illegal practice by the current Patriot regime, or any of the coaches
prior to that," Johnson said. "Never was I privy to anything, or any
illegal activity like that. Never. So I was surprised, quite honestly, in
Week 2 when that story broke. And I was surprised to hear what I'm hearing
now."
Johnson doesn't like the assumption of being "guilty until you are proven
innocent." Ultimately, he'd love for the issue to be resolved.
"If I'm a player for St. Louis, or I'm a player for Carolina, or a player
for Philadelphia, I'm going to be a little more than curious what the
outcome of these events are because you hope there's nothing to this and we
can move on with life," he said. "You hope we won fair and square. That
remains to be seen."
kguregian@bostonherald.com
--
Only a FOOL would believe in the FOLLY of Global Warming
Al Gore's movie IS an opinion (or more accurately a political device), and
there's very little 'scientific evidence' in it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/us/07stormcnd.html?ei=5065&en=1bb1732aba749ac9&ex=1200286800&adxnnl=1&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1199718180-11vT1Os9DH52pB43B/S+vg
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/01/06/br_r_r_where_did_global_warming_go/
http://www.newstatesman.com/200712190004
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19619301/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=485336&in_page_id=1811
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/04/eaclimate104.xml

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