Between Goodell’s fragile ego, the owners’ rank jealousy of Kraft and the league’s desperation to have some kind of win for a demographic they supposedly care about, there are a lot of things that suggest the NFL will issue anything anything but a measured response.
What is more interesting to me is whether the Kraft Scandal Playbook changes. Bob Kraft is a conciliator at his core, not a zero sum game guy. This has always been his approach, and for the most part it’s been very successful for him whether in business (where he has a reputation for being effective but not a win-at-all-costs shark), in politics (where he can support people like Trump publicly but push back in private) and certainly as an owner.
Indeed, in the latter, when the integrity of his coach and QB have been attacked (in Spygate and Deflategate respectively), Kraft has put up a mild fight in public before going along with the league’s ruling and mending fences behind closed doors. In all of these instances, he's believed that trying to get along with everybody and working with people behind closed doors to heal divisions is the way you move forward.
With this, however, Kraft’s own integrity is at stake – and potentially his ownership as well. It may well be a zero sum game – and there may not be a path forward. All of which is to suggest that what’s worked for him in the past won’t here. Which may well be why he’s fighting the substance of the charges themselves.
I suspect over the next few weeks we are going to learn whether Bob Kraft has lost his fastball at 77 or found another gear.