Ridiculous that the Pats only forfeited their own pick, the commissioner should have mandated the HIGHER pick was forfeit (theirs or the 49'ers). Once again goes to show you that Kraft has the league office in his pocket.
This pick has nothing to do with the punishment, the punishment was fine. The far bigger disgrace is that the 49ers traded away what is most likely to end up being the 2nd pick in the draft.
Can't mandate forfeiting the higher of their two picks, just THEIR pick. Otherwise it would remove the incentive for teams under penalty of forfeiture of first round pick to trade up.
Kraft has the NFL in his pocket right now. People keep making stupid trades with them that give the Pats more picks. We will never catch them if the rest of the league is acting like a farm team for them. See New York Yankees and Kansas City Athletics in the 50's for where that leads.