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Patriots Coach Bill Belichick would not say Wednesday what exactly he was apologizing for.
Quick hits while we plug our noses and pop in another Spygate videotape.

  • Go ahead, call me a Bill Belichick hater or just a card-carrying cynic, but something about this whole Spygate videotaping mess still stinks like a cross between rotten eggs and an NHL locker room after four overtimes.

    NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said there was nothing new in the tapes that former New England Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh finally turned over this week to the league.

    There was no smoking gun revealing further offenses. Just a few politically incorrect close-ups of San Diego Chargers cheerleaders.

    Maybe that's true. The tapes show the Pats recording the signals of five opponents in six games between 2000 and 2002. Goodell said he already punished Belichick and the Pats for those types of videotaping transgressions. Belichick was fined $500,000 and the Pats $250,000. The team also was docked a 2008 first-round draft pick.

    But what's still bothersome is that Goodell destroyed six tapes and assorted notes that the Pats turned over to him last fall. That and the fact he seems way too anxious to make this all go away.

    Sen. Arlen Specter has other ideas. He criticized Goodell's investigation and questioned his objectivity. He said he wants an independent investigation of Spygate, along the lines of former Sen. George Mitchell's look at performance enhancing drugs in baseball. And he still can't understand why Goodell destroyed that evidence.

    "That

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    sequence is incomprehensible," Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during a news conference Wednesday, one day after meeting with Walsh. "It's an insult to the intelligence of the people who follow it."

    That it is.

  • File this under the heading "Be careful what you wish for." Barry Bonds' lawyers argued in March that the federal indictment against him was drafted improperly and was too vague. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston agreed, dismissing the original indictment.

    Well, the feds filed a more specific indictment Tuesday against Bonds. And this one included 15 felony counts -- 14 for perjury. That's 10 more than in the original indictment. Fourteen of the charges cover specific instances in which Bonds is accused of lying to the BALCO grand jury. One charge is for obstructing justice.

    Bonds is expected to be arraigned June 6. This time, his lawyers might want to push for a speedy trial. You know, before he's eligible to join AARP. He's 43, still unemployed and not getting any younger.

  • As it turns out, Walsh apparently didn't videotape the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough on the eve of their loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI. Walsh, though, said he attended that Rams practice -- he was setting up equipment -- at the Superdome, took mental notes and relayed some tactical information to Patriots coaches.

    That's just another example of an ingrained culture of cheating under Belichick. It makes a guy wonder how much cheating Belichick has gotten away with.

  • Now that the Sharks have fired Ron Wilson and are searching for a new coach, they can book their trip to next season's Stanley Cup Finals.

    Right? If only it were that easy.

    Firing Wilson might appease some angry Sharks fans in the wake of their team's third straight second-round exit in the playoffs. And it might please some players who grew tired of Wilson's biting tongue.

    But firing Wilson and hiring a new coach won't fix what's wrong with a franchise that has never reached the Cup finals.

    General manager Doug Wilson certainly doesn't need to blow this team apart. But he does need to upgrade the talent level. Adding a dangerous goal-scorer or even two would be nice.

    Joe Thornton, the human assist, led the Sharks in goals this season with 29, tied for 29th in the league. That's just not enough firepower for a team with designs on the Cup. And when Thornton was smothered in the playoffs, the Sharks had no alternatives.

    The team could use a gritty, physical defenseman, too, someone to make goalie Evgeni Nabokov's job in the playoffs easier.

    The Sharks pride themselves on being fiscally responsible. But if they truly want to win the Cup, they need to see their space under the salary cap shrink and their talent level rise.

  • Here's a Giants mystery. Why aren't more fans at AT&T Park sporting Tim Lincecum jerseys and gear? When Lincecum started against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday, it took me until the bottom of the fifth inning to spot a No. 55 Giants jersey.

    I saw jerseys with the names of Mays, Schmidt, Clark, Zito, Lowry and Bonds. Multiple Bonds jerseys, in fact. Former 49ers and Raiders receiver Jerry Rice and Warriors guard Monte Ellis were represented.

    Maybe it's the recession -- oh that's right, it's not technically a recession. But those jerseys aren't cheap. Maybe Giants fans are waiting for Lincecum to prove he's the real deal.

    No need to wait any longer.

    Contact Eric Gilmore at egilmore@bayareanewsgroup.com.