Unlike some others on the forum I don't believe Goodell went into this looking to frame NE. However, he now needs to appease the self-righteous mediots that he spun up himself. So I will be in (in a realpolitik sense) completely shocked if NE is explicitly exonerated. He needs to make himself look good and that (easily) takes precedence over treating NE fairly.
As I've said before, this is what I expect (yes, it's bogus, but that's irrelevant):
- Goodell will say (and he'll intentionally say it this way) that the NFL "was unable to find evidence" that NE deflated the balls. He will not say "NE did not deflate the balls". He will not say "there is no evidence that NE deflated the balls".
- Because there was at least one ball below 12.5 PSI (and even the leaks most favorable to NE say there were multiple balls under 12.5 PSI, even if just by a little bit) he will fine NE for providing balls that were outside the 12.5-13.5 PSI spec called for in the rulebook. Might even fine as much as $25K per ball. He will say something like "this fine should not *cough* be taken to mean that we believe NE deflated the balls. However, since the ball pressure was in violation of the rules, a fine is appropriate. How the balls got out of specifications is irrelevant. The rule was violated."
- The Wells report will be loaded with verbiage about how hard they tried to find evidence but were unable to.
- The report will say that while nothing was written down, Walt Anderson certifies from his recollection that all balls were 12.5-13.5 PSI at pre-game checkin and that when he checked the balls at halftime at least one ball was under.
Again, this will be a well-tuned thing that will be neutral at first glance but will trumpet from between the lines that the league believes NE is guilty but that NE covered things up too well.
I think this is total BS, of course, but it's the corner Goodell has painted himself into.