Would haves, could haves, all are irrelevant now. As BB might say, "we are just looking forward to the next challenge before us. What happened in the past is over. All we can do is learn from our mistakes and correct them. There is no upside in laying blame and whining." So all the discussion should be directed to what should be the Pats' strategy from this point.
I would suggest the following.
1. Create a PR campaign that will be tasked to do 2 things
a. immediately respond to any media outlet or story that impugns the Pats either directly or indirectly. ie the recent Jets' bug sweep. It isn't enough for the NFL to come out and say it was "random".
b. Launch a long term campaign that will educate people why deflategate was really defamegate. Explain the science, show the errors of the Welles report, Make the Jets/Colts/Ravens connection. Show the maliciousness of the NFL cabal, and do it over and over and over again. You can't just do it once. The average commercial has to be seen 7+ times before it starts to make an impression. I would also plant articles showing that spygate really was all about cameraplacementgate, and not about cheating.
2. Make a public announcement that both Tom Brady and the team will be thinking about filing separate or joint defamation suits sometime after the season is over.
The immediate effect of this announcement will be the cessation of these frivolous stories the NFL and their proxies are throwing out there to continue their anti- Pats narrative. Reporters will think twice about publishing unsubstantiated stories like the Van Atta sandbag job, knowing it might cause them to end up part of a law suit.
It might even make the NFL think about the risks and rewards of continuing their rash course of action in dealing with this.
3. The last part of the PR campaign would be to start placing stories and articles asking, "Just WHY are the Patriots losing their draft pick?" Middle school science has proven that no balls were deflated that night. The NFL's actions after they KNEW the Mort Report was totally wrong prove their was malicious intent by an element in the NFL offices. Etc, etc, etc. I would plant enough stories so that EVERY time Goodell appears in a public forum, he will have to answer that question. I even plant a guy who will ask the follow up. I want him on record justifying it against all the evidence.
And if by the end of April we still don't have the pick back, I would make the League's taking away of the Pats draft picks the biggest story of draft weekend. I'd organize picket lines in front of where the draft is being held, AND the League headquarters. I'd plant people where owners gather and wherever they speak publicly and to ask them if they think it's fair for the Pats to lose their #1, when it's pretty much common knowledge that they didn't do anything. To be followed up with, "Isn't the whole deflategate scandal nothing more than a effort by some people in the league to help the rest of the league catch up to the Patriots". Or something like that.
Hopefully at the end of April, the campaign will enlighten the majority of open minded people to the truth of the NFL's perfidy. It will put the haters and liars on notice that they can no longer write their screed without immediate retribution. It might even create enough backlash to the thievery of the picks that the embarrassment might force the league to return them. Yes I know it's a long shot, but it is better than no shot at all.
But the key element is the threat of the defamation suit and the exposure of what the league office did. And if the threat of the suit doesn't bring Brady or Kraft satisfaction, then they have to do it, even if it brings the league down.
I've watch the many rises and falls of the NBA, and the slow decline of MLB, not to think it could happen to the NFL. Watching the NFL's continuing rise, despite the last 8 years of inept leadership on so many areas, is like watching a long bull market that people keep buying into even after it is over valued. If you think it's never going to stop, they you are an idiot who loses money. The NFL is getting to that stage.
The source of their athletes will begin to shrink when the concussion story hits big and fewer athletes play the game, or choose to play it that long.. People are getting tired of supporting an overpaid criminal element, along with all the petty and inept leadership they are seeing from the league itself.
Just think about the time before we became swept up in the euphoria of this great start, many of us, the most rabid fans around, were getting tired of all the crap. Then think about how the casual fans feel. As the ways people get their entertainment, sports, and news becomes more decentralized, they will find alternative avenues to entertain themselves. ESPN probable always though the money would never stop rolling in.....until it did.
