I have heard this a lot in recent days. The argument is that there needs to be motivation for a conspiracy and there is none because Brady being guilty is the worst possible scenario for the league to have one of their most marquee players being a cheater. But I ask is it?
The League has gotten out pretty good for this. For the last few months, the growing feeling is the League was incompetent for having a 100 day investigation that will produce nothing and they may have intentionally smeared the Patriots too boot. Now they released a report that goes out of its way to exonerate anyone in the League of any wrong doing and ignore the leaks all together while burying Brady and no one is complaining about the League anymore.
The best way to take heat off yourself is to make someone else the bigger enemy. Goodell comes down hard on Brady and the Pats and they win a lot of good will back with the rest of the country for finally taking a hard stance and not sweep things under the rug. If Goodell gives Brady a 6-8 game suspension, he will be commended for most of the country. People will forget the Ray Rice stuff. People will forget the Adrian Peterson stuff. And now Brady is the bad guy. I think Goodell thinks this has been a good week for him.
Do I think Goodell was part of a sting? No. I think others were. Do I think Goodell is using this to rehab his image at Brady's expense? Sure.
But like most things Goodell does, it will likely come back to bite him. Brady is not going to go down quietly and between him and Giselle, he has unlimited resources to fight this if he chooses to. If he feels clearing his name is worth spending millions and millions to do so, he will do everything he can to fight it. This could end up blowing up in Goodell's face.
I think that Goodell wanted to find the Patriots guilty. Wells went digging to find guilt and not necessarily the truth. I think if the Wells report did not have the Pats' guilty, it would have been the worst case scenario for Goodell and the League. Making Brady the fall guy might not be ideal, but it is far better than coming up with nothing after all this.
OK this will be long as different groups of fans hate the Patriots/Brady for different reasons.
First there are fans of certain teams who have had there dreams crushed, I'm thinking Colts, Steelers, Texans, Broncos, Ravens - teams that are or once were good, but the Patriots stood in their way. You can blame the refs, or hey, we all KNOW the Patriots cheated. There is is no other way they could stop MY team.
Second are fans of bad teams. (They will claim to be NFL fans after it is obvious their team sucks yet again this year.) Every year they get told their team is not doing it right, be it drafting "flashy work out wonders" (Raiders) or WRs in the first round (Detroit) or filling the roster with bad character guys (Cincy) every year they hear "why can't you be like New England?" There are examples for every team that had a long down period in the last 15 years. Although that comparison may be true, it put the Patriots in the spot of the kid in grammar school that is a teacher's pet because he does homework, etc.
Then there are player fans. Peyton Manning fans have nothing left than hating Tom for any reason. Ball to low, forget the Ideal Gas Law, he cheats unlike Manning. If socks-gate starts, Tom is a filthy cheater who does not pull up his socks like Peyton.
Montana fans are now feeling the heat. Before they had 4>3 but now they are sweating, so they grab at straws. Montana never had to CHEAT with DEFLATED balls...(yes, stick'um, but that does not effect a Montana fan.) For how it effects them, see Peyton Manning fans above.
Then there are casual fans. They see the page 1 headline PATRIOTS CHEATED and miss the section D 34 We regret the error.
Player fans are often team fans and the effect is cumulative for them.