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Thank you, Matt Walsh, for once again proving that there are suckers born every minute.

The National Football League and practically all of the reporters who cover it have spent the last three months chasing a fable. Years from now, when "Spygate" is referenced, it will be spoken of in the same vein as the Loch Ness Monster, Clifford Irving's book about Howard Hughes and cold fusion.

The Rams' walkthrough tape? An urban myth, like the treasure in Al Capone's basement or what was really on Curt Schilling's bloody sock.

Those who believe in the sanctity of Bill Belichick can now continue to promote his candidacy to succeed Pope Benedict XVI without fear of taint. Those who don't may again join hands with the conspiracy theorists who believe that Belichick was on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas. Nothing much has changed there.

I'm just waiting for the first guy who suggests in all seriousness that the government has hidden the walkthrough tape in Area 51, right next to the Roswell flying saucer. That will probably be Arlen Specter. Only in America could so many people be worked up into such a frenzy over something that got blown so far out of proportion, it could be seen from space.

Somewhere, an "anonymous source" is laughing at what he or she has wrought. Whoever it was that called the Boston Herald and said, "Hey, have I got a story for you ..." must be chortling over how a nation was misled into believing that the Patriots' practice of videotaping opposing assistant coaches included a secretive recording of the final practice of the St. Louis Rams before Super Bowl XXXVI, and that it tarnished everything the Patriots have done since then.

Apparently, there was no such videotaping. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apparently believes that it didn't happen, in any event. Walsh, the Patriots' former videographer turned golf pro, told him Tuesday that it didn't happen, and that he didn't tell the Boston Herald he had taped the walkthrough, and that leaves the rest of the sports media to stand around with egg on its collective face over all the conclusions that had been drawn since Feb. 2.

Even late Tuesday, after Goodell basically absolved the Patriots from any further guilt, there were still talking heads on the television pounding away at the familiar "They cheated!" theme, regardless of how hollow or misinformed it may have sounded.

Here, in a nutshell, is how "Spygate" should be remembered.

Bill Belichick ignored a rule, got caught, 'fessed up to his transgressions (well, he said he "misinterpreted the rule") and paid a pretty steep fine. Walsh came along and said he had more dirt on the Patriots, the team that had fired him from a low-level job (which should have raised a lot of eyebrows and didn't) long before the original "Spygate" allegations broke. Someone then told the Herald that the Patriots taped the walkthrough, everybody raced around like decapitated chickens, and finally, Walsh had to admit that his "dirt" amounted to little more that a scuff-mark or two on a freshly waxed floor.

The Patriots allowed a player to practice when he was on injured reserve, Walsh said.

The Patriots scalped maybe eight to 12 tickets to a Super Bowl, he said.

Oh, Walsh said he did see the Rams' walkthrough, and that he told his observations to former Patriots' assistant Brian Daboll - revelations that Marshall Faulk was lined up to receive either a punt or a kickoff, he wasn't sure, and that the tight end "rolled" in certain formations.

"The fundamental information that Matt provided was consistent with what we penalized the Patriots for," Goodell said after his three-hour meeting with the golf pro, which must have been the supreme test of his patience. Translated from the "polite," that means, "Move along, folks ... nothing to see here." Goodell even went as far as to say that if the allegations of ticket scalping and illegal practicing by an IR player were borne out, he probably would not be predisposed to add any more fines to the $750,000 already assessed of Belichick and the Patriots' organization. Personally, I believe the Patriots would have to invade a sovereign country or lay waste to the rest of the Amazon rain forest for Goodell to want to sanction them again.

But at least there's one good thing I can say about "Spygate" as I see it receding in my rear-view mirror.

At least it finally got everyone's minds off Lisa Olson.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com.