I too would have liked to see Belicheat punished but as I have said, he is maybe the only smart one up there besides Ernie. Payton's case was a bit different as he was accused of denying the bounty program existed (even after finding out that it did) and trying to cover it up through certain conversations with his staff. Here is an excerpt from the ESPN article about his suspension:
According to the league, Payton ignored instructions from the NFL and Saints ownership to make sure bounties weren't being paid. The league also chastised him for choosing to "falsely deny that the program existed," and for trying to "encourage the false denials by instructing assistants to 'make sure our ducks are in a row.' "
Billy knew this would be a bad approach and instead denied knowledge without giving the impression of trying to cover it up. He went so far as to try to explain that HE organized some exercises/experiments which would scientifically explain away the deflation, staying away from Shady's explanation of the events.
Now IF Shady turns over his texts and emails and Billy is involved in the discussion of how they are going to "line up their ducks" and respond...he is exposing himself to the Payton suspension. Maybe worse for him because of him being a "repeat offender".
The only thing Goodell MAY have going for him is IF he has some skeletons leftover from the "spygate" situation. If he knows where the bones are buried (so to speak), he will come down and uphold the current punishment, otherwise, he will try to mitigate (which is more likely) and come up with a reduction so that Shady and the team only get charged with failure to cooperate fully and a tacit admission that the case is not strong enough to punish for knowingly breaking NFL rules, IMO.
