In echoing the NBA's stance that Tim Donaghy was a "rogue, isolated criminal," Lawrence Pedowitz's team was forced to explain away some rather suspicious findings from a summer investigation of referee Scott Foster's call records.
The report from FOX Sports found that Donaghy called Foster more than 130 times over a six-month period, 10 times more than he had phoned any other co-worker. Worse, most of the calls lasted less than two minutes, and many of them preceded calls to Donaghy's betting buddies.
How did Pedowitz explain the odd behavior? By noting the long friendship between Foster and Donaghy and detailing how so many short calls could show up in records:
Foster told us that he frequently calls other referees and either hangs up when the call goes to voicemail or leaves a short voicemail message, and that other referees do the same when calling Foster. Foster's cell phone service agreement, which appears to be typical for cell phone carriers, provides that a call begins as soon as the phone being called rings, and a call as short as one second is recorded as a one-minute call. If the phone rings five or six times and the caller then leaves a message, it is likely that the call will last over one minute and will be recorded as a two-minute call. Therefore, it seems likely that many of Donaghy's short calls to Foster were in fact instances in which Donaghy and Foster did not speak to each other.
So basically, Foster never answers his phone. The report also discusses how lonely life as a referee can be, and notes that talking with other refs is a way to relieve boredom.
The lack of interest in Foster's involvement by the league, the FBI, federal prosecutors, and basically every media entity save for FOX ... that has also served to strengthen the skepticism of Foster's involvement. And while little the league has come up with in its defense has gained much public traction, it seems like this particular explanation could stick.
