I agree with this with the clarification that Goodell has nothing personal against Brady. For Goodell, this was all about resurrecting his image as a hard-nosed, incorruptible protector of the NFL shield after the Ray Rice fiasco. The fact that Goodell and Kraft were widely perceived to be best buddies before all this happened made things worse for both the Patriots and Brady. For how better to show how incorruptible you are than by hammering the team owned by your supposed best friend? This whole thing has been like a morality tale of what happens when someone only cares about appearing, but not actually being, virtuous.