I think a real commissioner could just say, The Patriots violated the spirit of the law, and therefore this is their punishment. I would accept a one game suspension and a draft pick loss at this point. But the commissioner should also say that the NFL has been remiss in delineating the rules more clearly, which opened them to interpretation. He should then leak word to every NFL team to clam up or else.
Personally, I don't think Gooddell has a handle on any of this. You know why? Because you have Jeff Fischer, a member of the competition committee, making comments. That tells me that the commissioner has lost complete control. This is about the NFL's image, and key players are now way off the reservation.
Gooddell doesn't want the lawyers and security on the sidelines of every game, but the only way to do that is to appease the Patriots in part, by punishing them with something acceptable (I do believe at this point the Patriots would accept something like a 3rd round draft pick loss and a 1 game BB suspension), while also telling the rest of the teams they better start thinking of the good of the NFL. That comment should be pointed at Mangini.
