Walsh on 'Real Sports'

HBO is adding a segment featuring an exclusive interview with former New England Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh to this month's edition of "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel."

The central figure in the NFL's Spygate scandal sat down with reporter Andrea Kremer for a conversation that begins airing at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Friday.

In the interview, Walsh tells Kremer the idea of taping opposing teams' defensive signals starting in 2000 came from the top levels of the coaching staff and continued to evolve over the coming seasons.

After taping the defensive signals of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during a game in 2000, Walsh claims he was told by one of the team's quarterbacks that "probably about 75% of the time Tampa Bay ran the defense that we thought they were going to run.”

When Kremer asks Walsh what really bothers him about how Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has downplayed the spying accusations, he replies:

“All that I know, is, the success rate that it has for the first game against Tampa Bay, and all I know is that it was something that they continued to have me do throughout the two years I worked in video, under Coach Belichick. If it was of little or no importance, I imagine they wouldn’t have continued to do it, and probably not taken the chances of going down onto the field in Pittsburgh or shooting from other teams’ stadiums the way we did.”

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the New England Patriots' taping of opposing coaches' signals. Specter has been critical of the NFL's own internal investigation of the controversy, saying league commissioner Roger Goodell was caught in an "apparent conflict of interest" because the NFL doesn't want the public to lose confidence in the league's integrity.

"Real Sports" airs throughout the month on HBO and HBO2 and will be available on HBO On Demand from May 19-June 9.