Personally, I think Goodell knew that some of the Pats illegal activities involved Super Bowls, and wanted it buried, so he made a minimal fine, destroyed the evidence, and counted on the fact that all the major news media have massive contracts with the NFL (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX) to keep the coverage from getting too deep.
The winners get accused of a lot of stuff. I’ve never seen a dynasty in any sport that wasn’t accused of something, it’s the real test of whether a team is a dynasty. Do people think you must be cheating? Congratulations you’re a dynasty, and sometimes the accusations aren’t crap.
I still can’t buy the Goodell cover up angle, it makes absolutely no sense what so ever to bust the Pats if they’re going to cover up what the Pats were doing. If they wanted a cover up the smart move would have been to twist some arms (including Krafts) to get the radio in the defensive helmet last season like the competition committee recommend and which almost passed the owner vote (it was like 2 shy) and end the problem before the season even started. THAT’S how you cover this up, not by publicly busting the team you’re trying to protect.
People need to tone down the paranoia, not everything that happens on this planet is a vast conspiracy and a cover up.