FOXBORO, Mass. -- New England Patriots tight end Zeke Mowatt, one of three players fined for sexually harassing a female reporter in the locker room last season, was waived by the team Tuesday.
The 6-foot-3, 240-pound Mowatt, 30, was signed by New England as a Plan B free agent in March 1990 after six years with the New York Giants.
In 10 games last season for New England, he caught just six passes for 67 yards as the Patriots stumbled to a 1-15 mark, the worst in the team's history.
The Patriots, together with Mowatt, Robert Perryman and Michael Timpson, were fined a total of $72,500 last November by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue for the incident involving Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson.
Olson claimed several naked Patriots players approached her in the team's locker room at Foxboro Stadium after a practice Sept. 17 and made lewd gestures and suggestions.
Patriots owner Victor Kiam fanned the controversy by initially dismissing the incident as a 'fly speck in the ocean' and allegedly calling Olson a 'classic bitch.'
After an extensive investigation by the league, Tagliabue fined Mowatt $12,500. Perryman, who later went to the Denver Broncos, and Timpson were fined $5,000 each. The team was ordered to pay $50,000.
Olson, 27, who has since left the Herald and the Boston area because of the storm of publicity surrounding the case, filed a sexual harassment suit against the Patriots in April, citing 'severe emotional distress.'
The suit came two months after Kiam publicly joked about the case at a men-only sports banquet in his hometown of Stamford, Conn. Olson said at the time she decided to file the suit because of Kiam's remarks and because Mowatt and Perryman had failed to pay their fines.
The case also led to a front-office shakeup, with Kiam replacing longtime General Manager Patrick Sullivan with chief executive officer Sam Jankovich at the of last season.
The Patriots announced Mowatt's departure without comment in a news release Tuesday which included the signings of two other players, defensive end Marion Hobby and free agent wide receiver Gene Taylor, who spent last season with Barcelona of the World Football League. Terms of the pacts were not announced.
Mowatt's departure leaves Timpson, a third-year wide receiver, as the only one of the publicly identified participants in the scandal still on the team.
The Patriots, with 82 players on their roster, open rookie training camp at Bryant College in Smithfield, R.I., Thursday.
