U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter today pressed the NFL to conduct an investigation into the New England Patriots' Spygate scandal, suggesting one on the scope of baseball's inquiry into the use of steroids.

He hinted that if it did not, Congress may well do so, and cited the NFL's anti-trust exemption provided by Congress.

"If the NFL does not investigate, if they don't, I think it's up to Congress to investigate and take corrective action," Specter, a Republican and the senior senator from Pennsylvania, said at a noon press conference in Washington.

Specter's comments came after he met Tuesday with former Patriots employee Matt Walsh, who was involved in some of the illegal videotaping of opposing coaches' sideline signals by the Patriots.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also met with Walsh for more than three hours Tuesday and then announced there would be no more punishment issued to the Patriots based on that interview and on the eight video tapes that Walsh had turned over to the league.

Steelers chairman Dan Rooney said in a statement Tuesday that the team was satisfied with Goodell's conclusions, and coach Mike Tomlin told the Post-Gazette "it's over."

Specter, though, differed with those opinions, calling them a "conflict of interest."

"They share revenue, they have gigantic economic interests . . . the core of their game is integrity.

"It's in the interests of every team owner and others . . . to do what they're doing. They're an obvious conflict of interest."

Specter cited the Steelers for many of his examples during his half-hour news conference today, partly because they and many of their fans are his constituents and also because four of their games with the Patriots involved illegal taping, including two AFC championship games won by New England in Heinz Field.

"There are a lot of open questions on the Steelers," he said. . . . "I'm incensed what happened to the Steelers."