It should also be noted that under Tagliabue/Upshaw, the league and union enjoyed a more positive, productive relationship than in any other sport. This relationship was a significant driver in making the NFL the juggernaut that it is today, and Tagliabue had all the powers Goodell has. He just had the baseline intelligence to understand that nothing good could come from colossal overreach and acting in bad faith.
Now we apparently have some owners sitting around wondering why their league has all the scandals? It's because the NFL is the only league with a stupid, vindictive, petty, insecure and incompetent commissioner.
Even if we wanted to go the strict interpretation "whatever the CBA says goes" argument, with no regard for common sense or federal law, the CBA states that Goodell can't be commissioner. The commissioner must be someone of unquestioned integrity, and Goodell is anything but that.
Somehow this dumb **** owner got it in his head that "ceding arbitration power to an agent of unquestioned integrity to be fairly executed in accordance with the law" means "ginger hammer can do whatever the hell he wants".