Tom Curran • E-mail

PALM BEACH, Fla. -

Roger Goodell took a surprising stance Wednesday, saying that if ex-Patriots employee Matt Walsh didn't come forward with the information he claims to have about Patriots taping practices, the league might force him to.

"I don't like anybody putting out accusations against the league or our clubs, and he certainly implied (wrongdoing) and said he has evidence," said the NFL Commissioner at the close of the league's owners meetings.

"I would like to see that. I said from the beginning if something additional comes to me I reserve the right to reopen this issue. But we have had nothing new for seven months. The Patriots taped defensive signals, we knew that. He's implied there is more to it. At some point I will run out of patience. I'm not threatening a lawsuit. But at some point, I will lose patience. I believe it's important. Somebody's made an accusation, and it's important to get to the bottom of it. And that's what I aim to do."

Given the negative impact the Spygate issue had not just on the Patriots but also on the entire league, conventional wisdom has been that the league would like it to go away. But Goodell's stance puts the pressure squarely on Walsh and his Washington-based attorney, Michael Levy, to get his testimony. So far, Levy has maintained that Walsh needs assurances and indemnity that the league hasn't given. This week, Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft emphasized that there is nothing barring Walsh from speaking. The holdup, it seems, is Walsh himself.

Why? Kraft offered one possibility on Monday: "He's over his head."

No go on reseeding
The proposal for changing the seeding format for the playoffs died without a formal vote. The idea was to use record to seed teams three through six in the postseason, removing the possibility of a division winner with a worse record hosting a playoff team against a wild card with a better record. That happened twice this postseason -- the Jaguars had to visit the Steelers, and the Giants traveled to Tampa.

The main motivation for the proposal was ensuring that more games have real importance late in the year. As it stands now, teams that clinch their divisions early can treat those games as glorified exhibitions.

But the clubs weren't biting on a change.

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"We knew there'd be opposition," said Falcons president Rich McKay, a member of the Competition Committee. "There were certainly different points of view. This is an idea we wanted to push to get the conversation going. We want as many games as we can to stay competitive throughout the regular season. Because it didn't pass now doesn't mean that we won't have a revised proposal in the future."

Quick slants

• The proposed "dead period" which would allow agents and teams to start discussing prospective free agents a week before free agency will be voted on at the next owners meeting in May. The league's management council will draw up a more formal proposal on it for presentation. Indications are that there's plenty of support for it.
• One interesting sidelight to the defensive headset rule is that sideline communication will cut off with 15 seconds left on the play clock. This means that if an offense runs in different personnel after the headsets are turned off, there will still be a need for defensive signaling.
• The league passed a sweeping "Integrity of the Game and Fair Competition" policy by a 32-0 vote. No surprise there. The proposal will compel team owners, head coaches and senior executives to certify things are being done on the up and up. That would include making sure there's no "unauthorized use of game-day frequencies, unauthorized videotaping on game day or practices, meetings of wal-thrus, unauthorized and/or unreported miking of players on game day or electronic eavesdropping or unauthorized entry into locker rooms, coaches' booths, meeting rooms or other private areas."
• Kraft and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick apologized to a room full of coaches and owners on Tuesday for the entire videotaping scandal. "One coach came up to me after and said, 'What you said to us was very helpful,'" Kraft said on Wednesday. "We're doing things that are on the edge all the time, and this whole incident shows how important it is to show restraint." Asked why he chose to speak to the room, Kraft said, "We're a partnership. When you have problems, like any good family, you need to sit down and talk about them."

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