ESPN.com's Matt Fish has perhaps just broken the sports Watergate that could threaten the legitimacy of the New England Patriots' dynasty.

Fish tracked down former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh, who claims that he (possibly) has the goods on illegal videotaping practices which, by very nature of when Walsh worked for the Patriots (1996-2003), proceed SpyGate by years.

Whatever Walsh knows, though, he's not telling; he has no motivation to. "I'll be honest with you," Walsh told ESPN.com. "I can't really be guilted into anything," he said. "Maybe... you don't think I have a conscience because of the people I was exposed to and what they had me doing," he continued, but "really, I just [have] no incentive to really talk to anybody, no reason to do it. For me, personally, I haven't really been able to see the gain in doing it."

But listen to Walsh's words closely. At the surface Walsh claims he "has nothing to gain" from speaking out about New England's videotaping practices during his 7-year stint with the Patriots. But read between the lines and it appears that Walsh is either (a) attempting to stir up the waters into a book/interview deal that would make a violation of his non-disclosure agreement with New England - which he claims would put his family, with its deep New England roots, in jeopardy, "worth his while" or (b) begging Senator Arlen Specter (PA), ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to subpoena him to Capitol Hill to spill his guts, thereby "leaving him no choice" but to drop dime on his former employer.

If Walsh were truly concerned with maintaining an image of loyalty to his former employer, he wouldn't have gone on the record with Fish and ESPN.com. Pictures of Walsh and his new life as an "assistant golf pro" wouldn't appear in the article, and he wouldn't say things like:

"There are lots of stories there. [New England Patriots director of football research Ernie Adams] told me stories of things they used to do in Cleveland [where Adams assisted Belichick with the Browns]."

Or: "If I had a reason to want to go public or tell a story, I could have done it before this even broke. I could have said everything rather than having [Eric] Mangini be the one to bring it out."

Fish masterfully portrays Walsh as a man whose "confidence comes and goes," a man who's made the most of his connections with the Patriots (once parlaying Patriots tickets into a 27-city travelling tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers), a man not prone to talk about the darker side of his time with the Patriots without ample motivation (which makes one wonder how ESPN made Walsh's time worth his while).

Everything about Walsh indicates that his will could be broken with a strongly-worded letter from Sen. Specter, which coincidentally would also give him ample motivation to violate his nondisclosure agreement under the guise of "having no choice" but to submit to the committee's subpoena. This would likely be joined by a veiled threat from Specter that the NFL or the Patriots best not threaten Walsh's 401K for his compliance with the Judiciary Committee's investigation, lest they, too, be trotted out to Capitol Hill to explain themselves.