I understand what you are saying. I just disagree with you based on what owners have said.
I base my opinion on the fact that owners have publicly praised the way Goodell handled deflategate, specifically Jones, McNair, Blank.
Owners will
always publicly praise the Commissioner, no matter what their private feelings about his actual job performance. Public solidarity is a big thing for them. But if they had their way they'd go back to a competent Rozelle/Tagliabue figure who wasn't hated or laughed at constantly and commanded some respect. But they're stuck with Roger and it would be worse for them to publicly say so if any of them are dissatisfied.
It's conventional wisdom to say "the owners like him because he takes the abuse so they don't have to", but all Commishes in every sport do that in theory. Few are ridiculed like Roger is, and there's no law that says your Commissioner needs to be a cartoon figure who sounds like a moron. There are better people, and I suspect even Kraft knows it. But they're stuck with him because trying to replace him would show public weakness, and that's a big no-no.
What makes you say that owners didn't like deflategate? Other than that's how you would feel if you were an owner and assume these billionaires should feel the same way?
If you held a gun to their head and had made them choose between a legal or a PR victory, they'll choose the legal one because leverage over the players matters to them. They got that. That means money.
But the owners who pushed Goodell to sandbag the Patriots and take them down a notch (because as we've heard, some felt Spygate wasn't punished enough and the team kept winning) expected Brady to sit quiet and take his medicine. If he had done that, the owners would have been satisfied and it would have been over much quicker. But once Brady refused to play ball and go to court, the whole thing went far longer than anyone expected. The longer it went, the more the media got tired of it and the more likely they'd see it as a joke (which is bad for League PR), which is exactly what happened.
The Pats winning 51 was the ultimate public relations FU.
Owners and the League Office don't want another massive PR problem over a minor issue like the injury report, which is what would happen if they targeted the Patriots again. They won't.
