But that's not how this works (it might be how it "should" work, but it's not how I understand that this proceeding works).
The League doesn't have to provide "proof of wrongdoing" by Brady. The standard, as articulated in the CBA, is "more probable than not." Wells found that it was "more probable than not" that Brady was aware of activities that were against the rules. The League doesn't have to provide "proof" beyond a reasonable doubt. If this goes to court, there will be different standards both of evidence and testimony, which will be under oath.
So, all Brady has to do is convince Goodell that he is telling the truth when he argues that he was not involved in anything that might or might not have broken the rules. He has to convince Goodell that there is another reading of the texts between Jastremski and McNally that have been twisted to implicate him. He has to convince Goodell that he did not have a long phone conversation with one or both of them (his first phone conversation with either of them in over six months) to this effect and that he did not meet with them in the QB room (a place where he had never met with equipment boys) to discuss illicit activities on their part.
I think he can do that. I think he can look Goodell in the eye and tell him that, yes, he put a lot of pressure on those guys to have game balls a certain way, but that he never told them to break the rules and was not aware of anything they had done to break the rules.
That's really where his involvement ends. Kraft has already taken the hit for anything else that might have been done. So, Goodell can come out of this saying that he punished the team for a lack of control of the equipment guys, but that he has cleared Brady.
I think the science argument is only to be front and center in Brady's case if they end up in court because in that case they would want to establish that Brady couldn't have lied about abetting a "crime" that never occurred. However, I think the NFLPA will be hitting it hard for reasons I outlined in another post in this thread.
