When Roger Goodell became N.F.L. commissioner in 2006, he made it clear that one of his biggest priorities would be to police players whose actions might tarnish the league’s carefully crafted image.
In the decade and a half since, Goodell has leaned heavily on a player’s contrition when determining what penalties to assess. As a rule of thumb, players who apologized and promised to learn from their mistakes have been treated more lightly than those who refused to sincerely own up to their wrongdoing.
But Goodell’s search for remorse has obvious limits, as the settlement with Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson once again showed.