This... plus the cheating.
I'll remain forever suspicious about the super bowl vs. STL. The fact that the evidence was reviewed by only Goodell, deemed not cheating, and then destroyed is pretty suspicious. If the evidence was benign, why destroy it? The only reason to destroy it would be to cover up cheating. Otherwise, if it is nothing, you make it public, clear their (Pats) name, and everyone is like, "oh yeah, that's nothing. Legit super bowl win. Let's move on."
To me this explains the ridiculous overreaction to the deflated balls. Goodell likely saw the cheating in those tapes and said, "It would be disastrous for the game if this got out. I'll destroy it, but don't pull anymore crap." They not only pull more crap, but get caught, and suddenly we have an extremely heavy handed punishment for a really stupid, meaningless infraction. I think there was a pretty heavy punishment when they got caught taping the Jets' practices, too.
Sorry for the
but I'm just big on integrity.