Most Patriots fans dismiss the opinions of ESPN.com’s Gregg Easterbrook regarding “Spygate I” and/or “Spygate II” (which is the first sequel that actually was a prequel).  And, at times, we’ve disagreed with the zeal he has displayed in criticizing the Patriots’ actual and suspected cheating and the league’s handling of the situation.

But Easterbook’s latest column regarding the allegation that the Patriots videotaped the Rams’ final walk-through practice prior to Super Bowl XXXVI is the best analysis of the situation that we’ve seen.

If the new allegations are true, Easterbrook thinks it will be the biggest sports scandal since the Black Sox incident in baseball.  We hadn’t thought about where this one would rank in the history of pro sports (even though we’ve been aware of the rumor since the days after Spygate first broke), but we think that we agree with Easterbrook’s assessment.

Which scandal would be bigger?  Maybe Pete Rose betting on baseball.  Maybe steroids, which is actually more of a generational problem than a one-time incident.

As football goes, it would be the most embarrassing moment in league history, if it’s proven that the Rams’ practice was videotaped.  And we really don’t care if others have done it.  We’re sure that there are plenty of other dirty things that have happened in sports about which the general public isn’t aware.  Should that make evidence of secret taping of an opponent’s practice any less shocking? 

And while many are suggesting that this latest mess is all the fault of Arlen Specter, the Senior Senator from Pennsylvania’s huffing and puffing merely coincided with the far more significant revelations contained in the New York Times item from Friday that brought Spygate back to the front burner.  Regardless of whether Specter opted to grandstand in the days preceding the Super Bowl, the Matt Walsh story eventually was going to surface.  Tthe Times merely opted to use what it could from Walsh on the same day, possibly because the Times feared that the Specter story might prompt other media outlets to introduce the world to Walsh, even if Walsh still really hasn’t said anything on the record.

So Specter’s power play apparently prompted the Times to go with what it could on Walsh, which has in turn caused all hell to break loose, which will give Specter more ammunition for his quest to hold hearings on the Patriots’ practices.

Regardless of how or when we’ve gotten to this point, it was inevitable that Walsh was eventually going to talk.  As we’ve said several times now, the only way to put this thing to rest is to provide Walsh with a forum in which he can say what he knows (or what he thinks he knows) and so he can be questioned fully and fairly by all interested parties.