The Patriots videotaping saga that began eight months ago when the team was caught illegally filming signals of opposing coaches might finally have reached an end yesterday, according to the Boston Globe.

Former Patriots employee Matt Walsh met with National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell for more than three hours at league headquarters, and Goodell said afterward that no new corroborated information was revealed about the team's videotaping procedures. In addition, Goodell found no evidence that the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough practice before Super Bowl XXXVI was filmed by the Patriots, as the Boston Herald reported Feb. 2, citing an anonymous source.

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.