I don't expect transparency from the NFL on this. My confidence in that is broken based on the league's handling of the investigation on multiple layers
This, to my mind, is the seed of the possibly big story underlying this sordid affair. To anyone who takes the time to understand the details, the NFL has lost credibility. And it is not just with the Patriots, who are only the latest victims. As Steph Stradley (and a couple of folks on this site) has been saying for years and recently reiterated:
The biggest mistake Kraft made wasn't fighting the punishment right away. It was not realizing the danger of a commissioner who craves power and PR over sense and fair process.
http://www.stradleylaw.com/deflategate-legal-faqs-settlement/
Goodell has
destroyed any pretense of credibility the NFL had and made a mockery of any claim to NFL integrity. People do not care about the Patriots, any more than 99% of us cared about Goodell 's warped sense of justice in Bountygate. But a story about how Goodell and his cronies have corrupted the NFL is a story with a much larger audience. If someone were to publish this story, the level of national noise would be much greater. Possibly reaching the ears of the owners who have been happy to sit this one out to watch the Patriots twist in the breeze of Goodell's PR machine. If the story were the corruption of the NFL by Goodell, then the owners would have a problem. And there would really only be one solution: Goodell must go. Oh sure they could consider sacrificing Kensil or Pash, but these are Roger's boys and the buck stops with Commissioner.
Goodell was never interested in the facts or in justice. He had his own self-serving agenda and he paid Wells and Exponent $5 million in a effort to prop up the trumped up charges against the Patriots. At the same time, he oversaw and participated in manipulation of the national media to shape public opinion in his favor--first with the false PSI release to Mort and then in upholding his suspension of Brady his personal accusation of phone destruction leaked to Stephen A. Smith. Curiously, both men are employed by the same network that refused to retract the fallacious PSI story and happens to have a $2 billion contract with the NFL. Setting aside his previous transgressions, having just spent millions of the owners dollars on an unnecessary "investigation" that is transparently biased (if only the owners would read it) and disseminated false information to defame the league's most successful team and greatest player, and refused the patriots request to shine the spotlight on his own organization, Goodell is in way too deep to turn back now.
No matter what happens with Brady's case, if Goodell remains as Commissioner is there any doubt that another "-gate" is around the corner? If the chants of corruption get loud enough, the owners would see their edifice being made a mockery of, and the only way for the NFL to restore credibility is to cut ties with Goodell. Goodell must go.
This is an unlikely scenario, of course, and still would not restore the damage Goodell et al. have done to the reputations of our team and our quarterback. But a new commissioner could recognize that new procedures will prevent a similar incident moving forward, and set aside any and all judgments based on the inherently flawed data accumulated by Wells in the absence of any credible PSI protocol. As crazy as this might be, it is the only thing the owners could do to restore any sense of fairness and credibility to their league.
