NFL: Firing Roger Goodell isn’t necessary
Asking the rhetorical question of whether the NFL has a pubic relations crisis is analogous to blurting out the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. The bombardment of arrests involving Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald, and Adrian Peterson early in the 2014 regular season is repeatedly denting the league’s image. Much criticism has pinned Roger Goodell as more of a perpetrator than arbitrator in these matters.
Keith Olbermann is leading a faction of the public who call for the commissioner to resign. Olbermann is a snobbish prude who spews verbal rants via teleprompter scripts in another reunion with ESPN. He’s afforded a medium (yet again) to voice his complaints as a moral compass for all things reprehensible in sports and life. His latest attack, the NFL and its commissioner, is presently an easy target. His contextual framing of Roger Goodell being culpable for all malfeasance illustrates how bad he’d like to make $40 million per year instead of bemoan someone else who makes $40 million per year.
The son of a Republican New York senator, Goodell resembles a strapping figure not commonly associated with commissioners. He’s a scholastic, with a physical countenance that sets him apart from common legal bookworms with statures that elicit uncoordinated, “strat-o-matic” geeks.
In that respect, he can stand toe-to-toe at Radio City Music Hall’s stage and congratulate talented, 20-year-old athletic specimens on being drafted. He emits a man who can relate to players more than numerous executives and prior commissioners who spent more time in libraries than playing ball.
Goodell authentically cares about the league and isn’t leisurely cashing paychecks. It’s not a ruse or disguise when he calmly deals with press inquiries and interviews. He’s very gifted in deflecting league criticism and has epitomized its creed of “protecting the shield.”
A general consensus of owners approve him as commissioner. Yet, he’s been dealt countless bad hands with respect to player conduct from the day he took the job in 2006. Goodell is undoubtedly the fall guy (as commissioners are for everything) for Ray Rice’s incident.
One in which Goodell met with Rice, his then-fiancee Janay Palmer, and Baltimore Ravens owners Steve Bisciotti. Taking into account what each told him, Goodell provided Rice with a benefit of the doubt judgment. It backfired demonstrably, a fumbling the entire country witnessed.
It’s tough to be impartial when a billionaire owner who contributes to your paycheck vouches for a player beloved and respected by teammates, coaches, and fans. Rumors persist the league office and Goodell saw entire footage of Ray Rice slugging his wife in an Atlantic City elevator. If that were the case, Goodell readily acquiesced to blatantly cover up for a running back closer to the end of his NFL career than his prime. Difficult to fathom he’d preferentially stick his neck out for one player over numerous past offenders.
Goodell has been involved with the league office beginning in the 1980s as intern under Pete Rozelle’s term. He was promoted to vice president and COO. Goodell has been heavily involved with league expansion, marketing, stadium development, the NFL network, and new television contracts including a recent Thursday Night Football deal. He’s also negotiated the 2011 player and 2012 referee lockouts.
His $40 million salary is commensurate with that of several top executives for American corporations. His compensation is a direct reflection of each team’s coffers. It’s strictly contingent upon the exchequer value for all 32 NFL teams, which average a value near $1.5 billion.
Football has consumed Americans for decades and surpassed baseball nearly 30 years ago as this country’s most popular sport. The NFL rakes in a grand total of $10 billion annually. It was granted tax-exempt, non-profit status from humble beginning in the 1940s. Modus operandi for the league has been creative marketing, broadcasting, and licensing fees.
As sponsorships delay or pull their advertising money out, the NFL will presumably have to adopt a no-tolerance policy. This would streamline behavioral codes and detract players from engaging in behavior harmful not only to themselves, but to their employers.
President Theodore Roosevelt helped football survive in the 1900s. It’s approaching a repeated crossroads over a century later. Yet, it’s not incumbent for Goodell to capitulate his position so a politico like Condoleezza Rice can earn $40 million and navigate similar waters. The NFL’s problem is contrived just as much by societal issues, not purely corner office leadership or lack thereof.
Another NFL commissioner isn’t essential for drafting proper legislation to combat an exponential rise of criminal behavior filling headlines in a less private world. The owners must concur their league can withstand being void of players who damage the game’s reputation more than they advance it on the field.
Roger Goodell shouldn’t need a refresher course that no player is bigger than NFL football. All of them eventually retire and new seasons are churned out with new draft picks, new Pro Bowl rosters, and new faces to market. The owners need to let Goodell implement stringent and uniform edicts for player conduct.
It will better safeguard the league from an embarrassing reproduction of wife beaters, child abusers, animal killers, and gang members. Equipped with backing from superiors, any commissioner (even Roger Goodell, Olbermann) can successfully initiate reparations moving forward.
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