I’ve been saying it since the week after he was suspended. I couldn’t find (yeah I didn’t look real hard because there was no link) who posted it but they indicated someone in sports media mentioned the exempt list. It made too much sense given his talent and the civil stuff being tenuous (from a distance, lack of info at the time) that this was a Goodell machination to get retribution/punishment/control of a player that had circumvented the rules/procedures and pissed off 2 owners.
One of the many things I have learned from
@Joker is that Goodell has no moral compass and is capable of any type of enforcement and will defend and create the rules after the punishment. So I’m sure he whispered in Kraft’s good ear that if AB did anything against the grain he had to go because The Shield needed it’s integrity back. AB sent some texts, Kraft genuflected towards Park Ave and the rest is Patsfans history.