This ALL stems from Goodell ordering the Spygate evidence destroyed. Had the stupid putz just stashed the evidence they accumulated in a vault, ALL OF IT, they at least would have had the threat of revealing it at a later date hanging over the Patriots heads, which would have forced them to clean up their acts. When Goodell ordered that evidence destroyed, he essentially gave the Bob Kraft Mafia a whole new lease on life, which emboldened them to continue business as usual.
If the league feared the damage a wide-scale cheating scandal would do to their image, and they had to hide it from the public, which in and of itself is disgusting and invited everything that followed, but if they felt like it was absolutely essential to cover-up the degree of the crimes NE committed, they at least should have kept the evidence and warned the Patriots in no uncertain terms; "One more cleating scandal, even the hint of impropriety, and ALL OF THIS EVIDENCE will be leaked to the media, then the other 31 owners will immediately move to have YOU, Mr. Kraft, sell the team, ala Eddie DeBartalo, banned from the NFL for life, so get Belichick and company into line, OR ELSE!!"