PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Roger Goodell, a Washington & Jefferson College graduate, will give the commencement speech at Shadyside Academy in June, and those graduating seniors likely will hear a theme the NFL commissioner has drummed into his constituents here all week.

Integrity, integrity and more of the same.

It's a topic that dominated the annual NFL meetings because Goodell pushed it, and they concluded yesterday after the 32 owners unanimously approved a policy proposed by the commissioner titled "Integrity of the Game and Fair Competition."

Perhaps spurred by the lingering New England Patriots' Spygate case, the new policy requires all club owners, executives and head coaches to certify annually that they have complied with league rules and policies and have reported any violations they know. Spygate prompted a rules change adopted this week that permits NFL defenses to have one helmet with a radio transmitter to receive signals from the sideline.

Goodell also pushed for the league to find ways to make late-season games more meaningful than they sometimes are.

"The integrity of the game means more than anything," Steelers chairman Dan Rooney said as the meetings ended. "The more we talk about it, that's never going to bother me. Roger was very big on it, he talks about that a lot."

The new policy in effect is similar to ones at the service academies in which students are required to turn in themselves or others if they know of cheating.

"You may say, isn't that going a little far?" Rooney said. "Not when you're talking about the integrity of the game. We don't have anything else. My father would talk about that. That's one thing that was so important to him, the image of the league so the people could trust. As with him -- and I hope it's also with me and with [son] Art -- if I shake hands with somebody, it means everything."

Goodell, who succeeded Paul Tagliabue as commissioner in 2006, moved from his first day on the job to clean up the league's image. It began with his personal-conduct policies in which he suspended many players for their conduct off the field, even before they were convicted of anything.

"I think everybody came down here with an eye to protect and preserve the integrity of our game," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "I think we had legitimate discussion along those lines. The limited number of rules changes shows our game is healthy and well."

Even Patriots owner Robert Kraft and coach Bill Belichick received ovations from fellow owners and coaches when they stood up at a general meeting here and again expressed remorse for what they did and vowed never to let it happen again.

Goodell fined Belichick and the Patriots and docked them a first-round pick in the draft for videotaping opposing coaches as they signaled in defensive plays from the sideline, something that will be diminished by allowing a radio helmet on defense next season.

"I paid a price for that mistake," Belichick said. "It was my mistake. I'd say going forward, as difficult as dealing with some of this situation has been, we've taken it as a positive and done a lot of things in our organization to reorganize a number of things ... I think if that was the intent of the commissioner's penalty, then, at least for the New England Patriots, that was certainly achieved."

The NFL continues to pursue the Spygate case in their negotiations with former Patriots employee Matt Walsh, who has alleged he has information on illegal acts by New England that go beyond what has been acknowledged by them.

"We hope to get a resolution soon," Goodell said yesterday. "I would like to see [the evidence]. The reality of it is, we haven't gotten any new facts yet, for seven months."

Goodell said if Walsh does not soon agree to show the evidence he supposedly has, "I will run out of patience" and the matter will be over. It's a matter U.S. Senator Arlen Specter also has pursued because two of the teams in his jurisdiction, the Steelers and Eagles, were beaten by the Patriots on the way to their Super Bowl wins. The Steelers lost AFC championship games to the Patriots after the 2001 and '04 seasons, and the Eagles lost to them in the Super Bowl after the '04 season.

But Dan Rooney said yesterday that it's time for the league to put Spygate behind everyone.

"We should get over it," he said. "We have to move on, do what we have to do, be prepared to look at things and do what's right."