Those tapes sure got ESPN's three-man studio crew of Cris Carter, Mark Schlereth and Trey Wingo all hopped up though. When I looked at the tapes they were sketchy, shaky, grainy and jumpy for much of the time. I even had a hard time picking out the familiar figure of Marty Schottenheimer on the San Diego sideline.
But when Carter, Schlereth and Wingo reviewed the tapes, they saw something akin to the NFL's Zapruder film. At one point, Carter declared what he saw the Patriots engaged in was definitely "cheating.'' Well no kidding? Wasn't that established in September?
Watching ESPN and its breathless analysis, you got the feeling that the Patriots were wide open to a whole new round of discipline from Goodell. But that only proved to me they couldn't see the forest for the trees in Bristol, Conn., because it has been clear since last Wednesday night that Walsh's tapes would not open a new chapter in the Spygate saga.
The tapes certainly showed the Patriots' diligence to their taping program, but my sense was that if you put a dozen ex-NFL players in a room and asked them to assess the benefits of the tapes, you'd get some very divergent opinions
