And honestly, consider the gambling factor. Someone might not be interested in throwing their own reputation under the bus, but imagine if wealthy people with a lot of money to win on a sports bet got involved. Maybe pay a woman a lot of money to make an accusation. Goodell, based on precedent, has to suspend the guy, which changes the likely outcome.Suspending him for PR purposes is really a doubled edged sword. No one argues that if there is hard evidence of wrongdoing (rape or otherwise), there should be consequences appropriate to the scope of his actions. But suspending him without conclusive proof while there is a potential that this is extortion would open the door for other similar scenarios repeating themselves. Relationships gone bad, revenge via civil suits, and resulting suspension without firm proof? Can you imagine the leverage these people who were in past relationships with players would have over them? I fully favor throwing the book at him if he committed rape. But "innocent until proven guilty" is an important principle. Action prior to that creates precedent for chaos. Investigating takes time, but getting it right is the best PR approach.
I mean, yes this is, uh, speculation, but isn't something like this totally realistic if we go down this road?