I was thinking of WHAT possibly Goodell could have said to Kraft to get him to capitulate. But some of the revelations of the last few weeks have combined to give me something I can now grasp. Let me know if you think this a "reasonable" possibility of what happened.
Goodell - "Ok Bob I know what you are going to say, the Welles Report evidence is not exactly rock solid, but it is more than enough for me to make my point. Listen Bob, the other owners are pissed. Even if what we have is weak, most are CONVINCED that your team is doing "something" in order to keep winning for so long. I have to admit, that I have to wonder as well."
Kraft - "But Roger......."
Goodell - "I hate to use such a cliche, but 'it is what it is". Remember Bob, when;the owners of Dallas, Washington, and NO all had to take it when I gave out my punishments, you were right there backing me up. I would get killed now if it were seen like I was letting you guys off after that.
Kraft - "But Roger....."
Goodell - "So here is what is going down. I'm going to give you a choice. Either you take the loss of the draft picks and the money, and feel free to appeal Brady'so suspension. I'll do what I can for Tom in that area" (and laughs an evil laugh that Kraft can't hear, and adds.......) HOWEVER, if you fight me on this, Bob, I will have no choice but to bring Bellichick into this. I can easily justify to my fellow owners a suspension of anything from 4 games to a full year's suspension. And believe me, Bob, your fellow owners will back me to the hilt on this, if only because of the competitive edge they'd get"
"So, believe me, Bob, if you think its bad now, I can make it much much worse."
Kraft - "But Roger......
Goodell - Listen Bob. I've been assured by my lawyers that I have almost universal power to do what I want regardless of what you want. They've told me that it won't even matter if you eventually have evidence to prove nothing happened vs the Colts, Any appeal you and Brady make will have to go before a Federal Judge based only on technical issues concerning arbitration, NOT about whether anything happened." My lawyers have assured me that it is very unlikely that my decision can be over turned.
"Bob, Understand that over the last few months we have created enough questions in the public mind that "something" happened, You won't be able to stem that tide, I promise you that" Our media partners have bee working overtime to protect our narrative. You HAVE to see the futility of fighting that now"
Kraft -" But Roger......"
Goodell - Enough, Robert. Enough. You have two choices. You either accept the penalties as outlined and hope for the best for Brady in appeal, or you fight me and we will add Bellichick to the punishments and we will make it stick! Believe me, we will make it stick! Now what's you answer? The other owners are waiting for my answer.; I need to get back to them with something. So what is it?".
Kraft - uh...uh...... OK....
Now that we know how much support Goodell had from owners who either wanted to get back at Kraft for supporting Goodell when THEY got the hammer, or those owners who just wanted to take the Pats down, so their team can do better. Now that we know that Goodell feels that he's been made invulnerable by the CBA and the law that surrounds it. It is easier to see that he just might have made Kraft, "an offer he couldn't refuse" and got him to do what WE think was unthinkable.
This is not an attempt to redeem Kraft, but it is an attempt to possibly explain a decision that heretofore belied explanation