Tom Curran • E-mail

It’s still too early for the Patriots and their fans to do victory laps.

Even though sticky-fingered Matt Walsh didn’t cough up a videotape of the St. Louis Rams pre-Super Bowl XXXVI walkthrough (an event that Fox’ John Czarnecki attended and called “the most disorganized one ever assembled” that doesn’t mean A) it wasn’t taped or B) Walsh won’t testify that it was when he meets with Roger Goodell on Tuesday.

Maybe it was taped. Maybe it was simply monitored. Maybe the words, “We should have taped that” that a Patriots employee reportedly uttered after the walkthrough morphed into “We taped that.” Maybe Walsh – who seems every bit the rogue employee the Pats have painted – thought it would be a cool souvenir to pop in the VCR when the party got dull. Surely, Bill Belichick knew nothing about it because – for all his real and perceived flaws – he’s not stupid and declaring as forcefully as he has that there was no taping of the walkthrough if he authorized it would be the height of stupidity.

The real issue is that the presence or absence of a walkthrough tape no longer matters. The damage to the Patriots “brand” has long since been done. The price exacted has gone way beyond the first-round pick and $750,000 fine levied by Roger Goodell back in September.

And because Walsh got the Patriots to agree not to sue him even if they believe and can prove he is lying, anything goes once he starts flapping his gums to Goodell.

This whole issue’s been a loser on every front for everybody involved. The Patriots. Belichick. The Kraft family, owners of the Patriots. The NFL. The media. Matt Walsh.

Once upon a time, the Patriots were a “once upon a time” team. Gritty, gutty underdogs who put the team first, backboned by a rags-to-riches quarterback, a brilliant and introverted coach and a resourceful defense.

That was the Cliff’s Notes version of their story in our Cliff’s Notes world. Never mind that the story was a lot more nuanced than that. Who has time for details when a quick-hitting list does the trick?

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And now the talking points have changed, probably for good. Gritty and gutty has become arrogant and deceitful. The brilliant coach is now a stop-at-nothing introvert who everybody knew was up to no good all along. And the Super Bowls are tainted! Soiled! Ruined forevermore! Call your Congressman! Or let your Senator get on the case!

“The genie’s never going back in the bottle,” one person close to the situation said Thursday when asked about the taping and the damage done.

Walsh produced eight tapes of recorded signals for Goodell. He hasn’t fully produced all the memorabilia and merchandise he lifted from the Patriots while in their employ – the Pats wanted it turned in by Tuesday; Walsh needs longer to collect it all.

It appears to be the same stuff for which the Pats were already punished, although some wonder if the presence of recorded OFFENSIVE signals constitute a whole different can of worms. Perhaps another eight months of money, time, bandwidth and airtime is in order. Perhaps people should let it go and see that – brazen and wrong as the Patriots taping was – it was not a war crime.

The upside of the whole matter? The ethics of the game have been reestablished. You don’t screw with the product. The downside? The price exacted on the Patriots has far, far exceeded the wrongdoing they committed. 

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