In today's editions, the Herald acknowledged its error and issued a front-page apology for running the story without adequate verification.
The underdog Patriots defeated the Rams in that Super Bowl, 20-17, for the first of their three NFL championships.
Goodell, who stripped the Patriots of their 2008 first-round draft choice, fined coach Bill Belichick $500,000, and fined the team $250,000 last fall for illegally filming opponents' signals, said he doesn't envision any more penalties being levied. Asked if the story of the Patriots' videotaping procedures was now dead, he said, "Having met with Matt Walsh and 50 other people, I don't know where else I would turn."
Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is one of the league's most vocal critics of its handling of the videotaping probe, might disagree. Specter, who pressured the NFL to strike a deal that would allow Walsh to come forward, met with Walsh and his lawyer, Michael Levy, yesterday in Washington for three hours inside his office in the Hart Senate Office Building. But because Walsh arrived in town later than expected, a press conference was postponed.
Specter will address the media today at noon, but according to the senator's spokeswoman, Walsh and Levy are not planning to attend.
In New York, where Walsh and Goodell met at 7:30 a.m. and league officials later publicly showed footage from Walsh's tapes, Goodell said a key purpose in speaking with Walsh was to learn more about the alleged filming of the Rams' walkthrough.
"We were able to verify that there was no Rams walkthrough tape," Goodell said. "No one asked him to tape the walkthrough. He's not aware of anybody else who may have taped the walkthrough. He had not seen such a tape. He does not know of anybody who says there is a tape."
Levy told The New York Times last week that Walsh never claimed to have a tape of the Rams' walkthrough, and was not the source for the Herald article.
The Patriots issued a statement yesterday that reinforced their denial when the story was published.
