See but I didn't follow bountygate that close, I think I'm the type of fan that the NFL has in their back pocket: I love the Pats to death but don't care about the rest of the league, so when I saw anything about bountygate I didn't look beyond the headlines. It took until just recently for me to realize the issues with that investigation, and it was only because the Pats are being similarly railroaded here.
And I think that's the problem: the NFL knows most fans only care their favorite team, if it's not happening to them then they read the headlines. Whether or not this gains real steam will depend on the national media hitting Goodell hard, and that only happened once so far: when we had a tape of Ray Rice hitting his girlfriend inside an elevator. There's no elevator tape here, obviously. Maybe these e-mails gain some traction, but I think the ONLY thing that would get all this out in the open is a suit by Kraft against the league. Small, miniscule chance of that happening but we can hope.