A thought occurred to me last night while driving home. Take, for a moment, the emotions out of this whole mess and assume (again, for a moment) that the NFL and Goodell are, indeed, simply fooled by the results and genuinely believe themselves to be right.
Would it not make the most sense that Kraft spoke with Goodell, said "this has just gotten out of hand. I respect you, but you got this whole thing wrong. I'm telling you, that wells report was incredibly misleading. I don't have the will to fight this anymore, just promise me when you hear Brady's case you will listen to what he has to say. Do that, and I will unconditionally drop it from my end" and Goodell, being perhaps a buffoon, but intending to be a good man from his own perspective like pretty much everyone on the planet, agrees. They shake hands, hug it out and Kraft makes his press conference.
It would fit not only human behavior, but Goodell's words where he said that he is interested in what Tom has to say and whether or not he has any new evidence that could shed light on the situation. And it would be consistent with Goodell remaining quiet all the way through the beginning because he doesn't want to speak on the subject until he has all his facts straight. After the Wells report, he thought he had all his facts straight, but is actually, possibly, able to be convinced otherwise.
We've made a lot, lot of assumptions in this thread, and the other one, throughout this whole thing. I still feel like this whole thing is because people see what looks on the surface like a gotcha moment on cheating and reacting emotionally from there. I believe there is actually a legitimate non-zero chance that Goodell hears Brady out and reverses the ruling. Especially if he can convince Goodell that the NFLPA has him dead to rights in a lawsuit. It would be his last chance to be able to get out of it and save face, throwing Wells under the bus and hoping it makes people forget about how they let Brady hang long before that.
