The fact the court has already decided he is the fit parent and has granted him custody carries a lot of weight. Unless some different evidence comes out, Goodell is not going to go contrary to the court.
Of course he will. He already proved it.
The point is that the NFLs punishment system isnt interessted in who actually the guilty party is. It punishes a player who through hes bevaviour hurt the product the NFL tries to sell. And if Goodell views the company Irving surrounds himself with is bad for his product then Irving will be punished.
Do i think this is right or fair ? Not at all. This has a tendency we had in germany when Hitler had the power: if you accused somebody for doing something bad not you were the one who had to prove it the one who was accused of doing it had to prove the opposite. Which is nearly impossible.
But it seems the u.s. law has no problem with the NFL making their own laws. To me this is a fundamental question if there can be a institution like the Nfl inside a state that calls itself a nation of law that is allowed to make its own decissions just to secure their own revenue. But that are obviously against the laws of the state.