Goodell has to uphold the suspension, or admit that his office made up the entire controversy.
He can't however, keep it at 4 games because he will then open himself up to all the Brady punishment is the same as Greg Hardy questions.
I think he lowers it to one or two games and gets Kraft to try and convince Brady to take it. I would be so pissed if Brady does. I think it would be easy for Brady to get an injunction, and then crush the league in court. the proble, form the league is if this drags out into the season, then Brady's team can begin to amass actual inflation data from games, which will of course prove that their was no deflation.
I agree with everything except your point about getting Kraft involved. Kraft's involvement would be construed as "meddling" in a matter between Ownership and Labor, unless Brady were to approach him and seek his advice (I wish we still had the "
When Pigs Fly" Smiley. as I would insert it here). Even then, Kraft would only speak to Brady in the presence of one of his own lawyers and would likely insist that Brady be accompanied by his own Counsel.
Otherwise, you are completely correct.
Goodell has to uphold the basic finding of Brady's complicity, because to do otherwise would be to throw Vincent, Wells and
himself under the bus and also admit, by the way, that he pissed away $5MM of the owners' money. I will boil and eat one of my Patriots' Championship hats if he exonerates Brady. There is, in my mind, no doubt that the basic finding will be left standing.
I also agree that he'll try to get away with reducing the suspension to one or two games.
As to the ease with which Brady will be able to get an injunction and "crush the league in court," I basically agree, but think that, while it's likely that he'll be able to get his case heard, that that is by no means a certainty. A lot will depend on the Judge who gets the appeal as much as anything else.