No huge revelations from Walsh's Spygate tapes

NEW YORK -- A murmur rippled across the room as the NFL revealed the tapes provided by former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh.

The cause was not some new revelation of wrongdoing by New England, which was caught last September recording New York Jets defensive coaches' signals in violation of league rules.

No, the most scandalous tidbit that emerged Tuesday after Walsh spent more than six hours meeting separately with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Sen. Arlen Specter? A snippet of tape that showed not football but close-ups of San Diego Chargers cheerleaders performing during a 2002 game?

Otherwise, little fresh information surfaced. Asked if he considered the Spygate investigation closed, Goodell said, "As I stand before you today, and having met with Matt Walsh and more than 50 other people, I don't know where else I would turn."

No new fireworks came from Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has criticized the league's handling of the case. When his afternoon meeting with Walsh in Washington ran long, he postponed his news conference until today.

Walsh did not comment after his morning meeting with Goodell and left through a different exit to avoid the media gathered outside his session with Specter.

Walsh provided some closure -- and a new nugget -- about one of the most serious allegations made against New England. He had no knowledge of anybody with the Patriots taping the Rams' final walkthrough leading up to the 2002 Super Bowl, Goodell said.

The Boston Herald reported in February that an unidentified employee illegally recorded the walkthrough before New England, a 2-touchdown underdog, upset St. Louis 20-17.

But Walsh did claim a New England assistant asked him what he saw during the walkthrough.

"For the past 3½ months, we have been defending ourselves against assumptions made based on an unsubstantiated report rather than on facts or evidence," the Patriots said in a statement.

They added: "We hope that with Matt Walsh's disclosures, everyone will finally believe what we have been saying all along and emphatically stated on the day of the initial report: 'The suggestion that the New England Patriots recorded the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 is absolutely false. Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue.' "

The Spygate investigation began after the NFL confiscated tapes from a Patriots employee who recorded the New York Jets' defensive signals during the 2007 opener. New England coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, while the team was fined $250,000 and forced to forfeit its 2008 first-round draft choice.

The tapes Walsh provided confirmed what was already known. The clips cut between shots of opposing coaches sending in signals and the play that followed. Walsh did not shoot the footage of the cheerleaders, NFL officials said.

"There was no bugging of locker rooms," Goodell said. "There was no manipulation of communication systems. There was no crowd noise violations anywhere that he was aware of. No miking of players to pick up opposing signals or audibles."