NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has announced that former Patriots video employee Matt Walsh has provided him with no new evidence of cheating by the team, beyond the information that already has been discovered and disclosed regarding the taping of coaching signals.

Most importantly, Goodell said that Walsh claims there is no evidence of any videotape of the Rams’ walk-through prior to Super Bowl XXXVI.  Walsh told Goodell that Walsh didn’t tape it, that he was not aware of anyone who might have taped it, that he hasn’t seen it, and that he knows of no one who taped it.  Walsh also said that he was in Superdome at the time of the walk-through, that he was going about his required busines, and that he was on sidelines in Patriots gear while the Rams were practicing.

Goodell said that Walsh also is aware of no other violations of league rules of policies by the Patriots.  Goodell specifically ruled out evidence of bugging of locker rooms, manipulation of communications systems, augmenting of crowd noises, and/or placing microphones on players to pick up opponents’ audibles or signals by the Patriots.

Walsh supplied only two new pieces of information — that the Pats used a player on injured reserve during a practice in 2001, and that Walsh was involved in the scalping of eight to ten Super Bowl tickets.  As to the former, Goodell claimed that the penalty for using a player in practice who is on injured reserve is the imposition of a fine.  But Goodell said that there will be no additional penalty, given the $750,000 in fines previously imposed on the team.

Walsh told Goodell that he wasn’t looking for publicity, and that when Walsh hinted that there was more evidence of cheating to the New York Times, Walsh was under the impression that it wasn’t well known that the practice dated back to the 2000 season.

And that’s because it wasn’t well known.  Though the NFL has tried to perpetuate the notion that the Pats ‘fessed up to taping it has been common knowledge since September, it wasn’t widely reported until February 2008.

Finally, and we hope that the people at ESPN were listening closely to this, Goodell said that Walsh’s tapes weren’t used during the same game.