Help Wanted: After Spygate Mess, Boston Herald Will Hire a New Patriots Beat Writer

On the day before this year's Super Bowl, the Boston Herald ran a story by reporter John Tomase alleging that the Patriots had taped the Rams' final practice prior to the 2002 Super Bowl.

The Herald later recanted that story, and although the paper publicly stood by Tomase, there have been questions about whether he could continue to be the paper's main Patriots beat writer. It appears that the paper has concluded that he can't. From JournalismJobs.com:

The Boston Herald, the authority of hard-hitting sports coverage and analysis in Boston, is seeking an experienced NFL reporter to cover the New England Patriots. Candidates should have at least five years of experience covering professional sports in a competitive market and should have enough NFL contacts to be able to impactfully deliver local and national stories, produce a weekly NFL notebook and blog on the newspaper's Web site.

That ad doesn't mean Tomase (who also writes about the Patriots for The Sporting News) is totally finished covering the Patriots. But Tomase now mostly writes about the Red Sox, and the JournalismJobs.com ad basically describes his old Patriots job. Tomase could still write the occasional Patriots piece here and there, but it looks like the Herald is no longer comfortable having him cover the team on a daily basis.

Via PFT.