Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley
At 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, the highly anticipated meeting between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh will take place. Goodell has to give every appearance that he's eager to hear from Walsh, but in reality, he won't be able to end the conversation quickly enough.
Walsh's attorney now says that his client never claimed to have the so-called smoking gun -- otherwise known as a tape of the Rams' walk-through practice leading up to the 2002 Super Bowl. But Walsh never seemed in a rush to shoot down the rumor that the tape was in his possession.
ESPN.com's Mike Fish said the most interesting item that Walsh sent to the NFL office was a tape of the Miami Dolphins' offensive play-calling signals, which seems like such a waste of film.
Until this point, we thought the Patriots were only guilty of filming defensive signals. Surely the great Belichick didn't need to steal offensive signals, too.
So what will happen tomorrow?
Well, Goodell will have to uncomfortably thank Walsh for his time, although he'll stop well short of referring to the man as a whistle-blower. If he spoke his mind, he'd probably say something like, "We're so glad to have this kid out of our hair we can't stand it."
He will mention the "unprecedented" punishment the league assigned the Patriots and then say that he didn't find any evidence that would cause him to take further action. Goodell will try to bring as much closure to Spygate as possible.
Unfortunately for him, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa) will probably hold his own news conference after meeting with Walsh on Tuesday afternoon. And Specter doesn't seem to be interested in closure.
Will Spygate simply go away? I wouldn't bet on it. Fortunately, daily Hashmarks reader Sal Paolantonio has provided the commissioner with some questions to ask Walsh.
