Beli-cheat avoids another fine

HIS long-awaited summit with former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh lasted three hours and 15 minutes at 280 Park Ave. yesterday, and this is what NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell learned:

Bill Belichick did not participate in the Watergate break-in.

Belichick never told Walsh that there were weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq.

Belichick never stayed at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, much less knew the identity of Client 9.

Belichick never instructed Walsh to shoot photos of Miley Cyrus.

So this was the day that Spygate turned into Diegate.

Belicheat will forever wear the Scarlet Labels Cheater and Liar, but he did not authorize any videotaping of any Rams walkthrough the day before Super Bowl XXXVI. Nor does he know of any such tape.

Nothing Goodell and his minions saw or heard yesterday from Walsh will move Goodell to further discipline Belichick and the Patriots.

When Goodell asked him if he had contact with Belichick during his seven years with the Patriots, Walsh actually referred to Belichick as "The Man Behind the Curtain." Walsh would deliver the illegal tapes to Ernie Adams, Belichick's longtime guru. It was Walsh's supervisor, not Belichick, who told him to proceed with caution.

So this was the day the NFL all but shouted from the rooftop of the Empire State Building: "Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Sen. Specter."

Arlen Specter's meeting with Walsh came hours later in D.C., and it really doesn't matter if Specter will choose to make a federal case out of the Patriot Super Bowl ticket-scalping Walsh talked about or the player on injured reserve who should not have been cleared to practice, or former Belichick aide Brian Daboll asking Walsh about a Rams formation or two that Walsh noticed while Walsh somehow was allowed to watch the walk-through clad in his Patriots gear for all the world except for Mike Martz to see.

Daboll, currently Jets quarterback coach, prepared film breakdowns for each upcoming opponent, including comprehensive opponent scouting charts for Belichick and the defensive aides.