All is well in Spygate and NFL; Goodell considers matter closed

The most scandalous part of the tapes was several minutes of close-ups of the San Diego cheerleaders.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh disclosed no new rules violations in the Spygate scandal during his meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell or in the tapes that the league released Tuesday.

The clips, shown after Walsh’s nearly 31‚Ñ2-hour meeting with Goodell, cut between shots of opposing coaches sending in signals and the play that followed.

“The fundamental information that Matt provided was consistent with what we disciplined the Patriots for last fall,” said Goodell, who didn’t anticipate punishing the team any further.

The most scandalous part of the tapes shown before Goodell’s news conference had nothing to do with stealing signals — it was several minutes of close-ups of San Diego Chargers cheerleaders performing during a 2002 game.

Walsh did not comment after leaving the NFL offices and left through a different exit to avoid the media following his afternoon meeting with Sen. Arlen Specter in Washington. Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been critical of the NFL’s handling of the investigation.

Specter postponed his news conference to Wednesday when his meeting with Walsh ran long.

The Spygate investigation began after the NFL confiscated tapes from a Patriots employee who recorded the New York Jets’ defensive signals from the sideline 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.

Asked if he considered the matter 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.”

Walsh 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 two-touchdown underdog, upset St. Louis 20-17.

But a new revelation emerged related to that walkthrough: Walsh said a Patriots assistant coach asked him what he saw.

Walsh was in the stadium in his Patriots gear setting up equipment during the walkthrough, Goodell said. NFL officials noted that it’s common for personnel not connected to the team to be present on that day.

Walsh told Goodell that then-New England assistant Brian Daboll approached him later, said NFL attorney Gregg Levy, who attended the meeting. Walsh said he told the coach that running back Marshall Faulk was returning kicks and described the Rams’ use of tight ends in their formations. Daboll did not mention the conversation when he was interviewed by NFL officials about the walkthrough, Levy said.