Snap Judgments: Matt Walsh wilts during long-awaited day in the sun

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he does not expect to sanction the Patriots beyond what he's already done. Chris Trotman/Getty Images Don Banks's Mailbag Don Banks will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we endured Matt Walsh Day in the carnival-like fashion we expected in New York. ...

• I fully understand there will be those with fertile imaginations who want to see conspiracy theory in every scenario, but from my vantage point, two fundamental truths emerged from Walsh's three-hour-plus meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday:

-- The allegation the New England Patriots illegally filmed the Rams' Super Bowl walkthrough in February 2002 didn't hold water. Walsh completely refuted any knowledge of the existence of such a tape, or that he had even heard tell of one. If the guy subsequently fired from the team's video department -- with presumably an ax to grind against the team -- didn't have a shred of information to share on that topic, what chance is there that such a tape was ever compiled? Next to none is the logical answer.

-- Walsh telling Goodell the tapes he turned over to the league were never used for competitive advantages during the game they were shot should close that open-ended debate once and for all. Walsh knew the drill and executed it, but he also knew it did not provide an in-game benefit.

The Patriots cheated and shot video of AFC opponents they reasonably believed they'd face again in the near future. That means they quite possibly cheated in order to better prepare for the teams they beat in the AFC playoffs on their way to three Super Bowl wins, but it does not mean they cheated in any of the Super Bowls themselves. As far as we know, they beat the Rams, Panthers and Eagles in those games fairly and squarely, even though that distinction can rightly be questioned in light of their previous actions against potential AFC playoff foes.

Whether the Patriots and their blindly loyal fans like it or not, the Spygate saga has tainted New England's Super Bowl legacy, because the team admitted it broke league videotaping rules dating to 2000. But there's absolutely no proof presented showing that the Patriots beat their NFC Super Bowl opponents with the help of illegal means. Can we all grasp those two parallel realities?

• One of my favorite moments during Goodell's press conference Tuesday was when he admitted he never bought Bill Belichick's pile of baloney cover story that his team's entire illegal videotaping program was based on his misinterpretation of the league's rules regarding the matter (the footage is permissible if not used in that game).

I thought Goodell had made that clear back in September when he issued his penalties to the team and Belichick, but it was worth underlining again Tuesday. There was no way to misinterpret the memo the league issued on illegal videotaping in September 2006, and Belichick was just bold and brazen with his decision to continue the practice after that point.

Make no mistake: The Patriots didn't suffer any significant new wounds from what Walsh had to tell Goodell this week. But that doesn't mean that New England and Belichick will ever completely erase the stigma that this saga has attached to them.

• No Arlen Specter press conference? That's got to be a first. Sen. Specter generally enters a room talking, and he's a grandstander of great skill and experience. Specter has had a great deal to say about Spygate for more than three months now, and it's surprising to hear that he's passing on the chance to weigh in on Walsh's side of the story until Wednesday.

And Spygate lives for at least one more day.

• The whole scene in New York had that theater of the absurd feel to it for much of Tuesday morning, with Walsh being whisked in and out of the NFL office like some Mafia informant on trial. I thought Walsh had a little of that so-this-is-the-big-city look in his eyes, but then again, I don't know what it's like firsthand to be in the middle of the media maelstrom, surrounded by mini-cams.

Then there was the playing of the tapes for the media. After getting criticized for destroying the six tapes that the NFL seized from the Patriots last September, Goodell was bound and determined to show every last frame to reporters this time around. But best I could tell from watching on TV, attendance in the room was lagging after about 15 monotonous minutes.

• Those tapes sure got ESPN's three-man studio crew of Cris Carter, Mark Schlereth and Trey Wingo all hopped up though. When I looked at the tapes they were sketchy, shaky, grainy and jumpy for much of the time. I even had a hard time picking out the familiar figure of Marty Schottenheimer on the San Diego sideline.

But when Carter, Schlereth and Wingo reviewed the tapes, they saw something akin to the NFL's Zapruder film. At one point, Carter declared what he saw the Patriots engaged in was definitely "cheating.'' Well no kidding? Wasn't that established in September?

Watching ESPN and its breathless analysis, you got the feeling that the Patriots were wide open to a whole new round of discipline from Goodell. But that only proved to me they couldn't see the forest for the trees in Bristol, Conn., because it has been clear since last Wednesday night that Walsh's tapes would not open a new chapter in the Spygate saga.

The tapes certainly showed the Patriots' diligence to their taping program, but my sense was that if you put a dozen ex-NFL players in a room and asked them to assess the benefits of the tapes, you'd get some very divergent opinions.