Herby, to continue what we saying a moment ago:
When was the last time he played hardball with a player like this? Assuming your intuition is correct, of course. I wouldn't put myself into either of the camps you name. Lombardi strikes me a guy who genuinely believes a lot of the stuff that he says about community, and culture, and honor, and all that stuff; he also strikes me a careful, deliberate, and calculating professional at the same time. There are lots of his own quotes that illustrate his discomfort with those two facts.
Still, this strikes me as a bit out of his usual range. I can't think of examples offhand where he's really dirtied his hands like this, not to this extent. And, with the very real costs that you and Telos identified, I'm struggling to see this through Lombardi's own cost-benefit analysis. Is such an action really worth the buyout money and the few million in cap relief that it brings? Maybe it is, but it seems a steep price to pay.