Every time you turn around there is another big controversy surrounding the NFL. Why?
The great Pete Rozelle is rolling around in his grave at this very moment.
For a considerable amount of time now, the National Football League has had to deal with major off the field incidents and controversies.
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They were first hit with a blockbuster class-action lawsuit revolving around concussions. Then, the Ray Rice debacle occurred. Now the league is faced with an “Integrity of the Game” issue surrounding Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, and the fact that Seattle Seahawks running-back Marshawn Lynch is making them look like a fool.
Why does it seem this non-sense happens all too often around this league?
Simply put, because NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell allows it to happen.
Former commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who proceeded Goodell back in 2006, recently had this to say regarding his successor:
Via GQ:
"If they see you making decisions only in economic terms, they start to understand that and question what you’re all about,” Tagliabue told GQ. “There’s a huge intangible value in peace. There’s a huge intangible value in having allies.”"
Tagliabue also went on to say that by the mid-2000’s Goodell was getting extremely impatient as he wanted the commissioner job badly.
"“He was getting impatient,” Tagliabue, now 74, told GQ."
Yes it’s true: we are all seeing how transparent this league can be. They must think we’re all morons.
In a nutshell Tagliabue is telling us that Goodell is hurting the league by only caring about the bottom line. By only factoring in money and player discipline, he has alienated a lot of other folks surrounding the league.
Tagliabue is right on the money and there is no better example than the recent happenings surrounding Deflate-Gate.
When “Deflate-Gate” was first reported, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen told the world that the league was “distraught, disappointed and angry.”
The time had finally come to make an example out of this franchise who everybody knows bends the rules. Finally, Goodell could put his foot down, make up for the misstep during Spygate and make sure everybody around the league knew that this would NOT be tolerated.
When integrity of the game starts to get messed with, that just puts us one step closer to having no game.
Yet, no action has been taken against New England.
Why? Well because Goodell will be damned if anything, even cheating, gets in the way of the Super Bowl. This game is their bread and butter and any chance of hurting the game (suspensions) would directly affect their pocketbooks.
To Goodell the thought of advertisers getting angry is quite possibly the worst thought in the world.
Instead, he’d rather put on a song and dance and pretend we’re idiots. They told us they would “investigate” the matter and it would take “time.” Bringing in Ted Wells to conduct a third-party investigation is more laughable than the latest SNL skit about Deflate-Gate.
If you believe the NFL needed more than 48 hours to hand down punishment, then you need to drop you belief in the tooth fairy as well.
The same exact thing occurred during the Ray Rice case as magically the Robert Mueller report would solve everything and absolve the commish from any wrong doing. For a man in Mueller is so closely tied to the league, how in the world would his findings solve anything?
Goodell sat down with Rice and Janay Palmer, and whatever they were selling he bought. At no time was he going to take serious action against Rice. That was, until, outside pressure and the chance of advertisers pulling out due to the negative publicity starting becoming a realistic possibility.
The cover-up was just as bad as the crime in that situation.
Goodell only cares about money and fooling the gullible.
Think about it though? How is it possible that Goodell was considered to be so safe during such a tumultuous time? Because the the “who’s who” of the mega-owners had his back and would announce to the world that they believed he never saw the infamous elevator video tape.
He has made them such a fortune that they love him.
Owners Robert Kraft, Dallas Cowboys‘ Jerry Jones, New York Giants‘ John Mara and the Pittsburgh Steelers Rooney Family are just a few of the elite that stand behind Goodell.
For example, Goodell and the NFL pulled in $1.07 billion in sponsorship revenue during the 2013 season, two of those big chunks coming from Microsoft and DirecTV. They are embarrassingly rich.
The price they pay in green though is hurting them in integrity.
Because they didn’t take action against the Patriots organization when we all knew they could and should have, it’s opened up Pandora’s box in way of reports, claims and hard-talk.
Since then, Belichick came out with a dissertation on air pressure 101 and Kraft decided to completely challenge the league office.
People are already rumoring that Kraft came out so tough because it was a clever scheme by Goodell and the Pats owner to distance themselves from one another after Richard Sherman’s comments about them yucking it up prior to the AFC title game.
Rumors and talk like that is continuing to damage the respectable nature this league once enjoyed.
The time Goodell is taking to stall is allowing the Patriots organization to come together and brilliantly scheme ways and explanations to raise doubt and turn it around on the league. Now, instead of the league suspending the Pats because their balls were illegal, the Pats have come up with a way to make the conversation “you must prove that we did it.”
Why would proof have to be considered? This is not a courtroom, this is the NFL. Their balls were illegal and somebody made it happen, plain and simple.
Saving every dollar they could for their beloved Super Bowl has made this mess an even bigger disaster and now has a lot of people even questioning whether this organization will even be punished at all.
Major integrity is at play here.
If Goodell comes down hard on the Patriots after the Super Bowl, what he in essence told us was not damaging the Super Bowl was more important than the integrity of the game. If he comes down lightly, or doesn’t come down at all on the Pats after the Super Bowl, then the message will be if your owner is close with the commissioner, then pushing the lines of integrity are clearly worth the risk.
If I was a coach of an NFL team and I made it to the AFC Championship game next year, I’d find a way to cheat with any scientific explanation I could provide whether it’s laughable or not.
Who cares? I won’t be penalized until after the Super Bowl anyway. It’s a calculated risk that is well worth the chance.
For Goodell though, Deflate-Gate is only the tip of the iceberg.
The reason so many are fumed about this situation is not because of an air pressure in a football. It’s because these guys are repeat offenders.
Do you think so many would be upset if the real truth was revealed about Spygate? Everybody still wonders what was on those videotapes that the league so conveniently destroyed. Their actions of sweeping it so neatly under the rug has lead to future actions for which that organization knows they own Roger Goodell.
Could it perhaps have been the simple fact that the revealing of the extent for which Belichick went in Spygate would’ve completely destroyed their three championships and ruined the perception of the integrity of those seasons?
Yet again, money and protecting the shield holds more a priority than doing the right thing and putting an end to any possible shenanigans.
A couple of years ago Goodell came down very hard on New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton during Bounty-Gate.
Payton had to sit out an entire year because “ignorance was not an excuse.”
No doubt about it, targeting to hurt other players in that fashion is wrong, but because of past actions by this commissioner, most feel the only reason for such a harsh suspension was due to the class-action lawsuit currently in play against them.
Would Payton have gotten that harsh a suspension if concussions weren’t such a hot button issue at the time?
Again, the possibility of losing money through that lawsuit would drive this commissioner to any extent.
Just look at the play on the field. Now there seems to be a “you hit him too hard” penalty in this league. Of course it’s due to the concussions issue, and it’s understandable. However, the length for which they’ve gone through penalizing rough hits has gone over the edge.
Just another example of this commissioner taking severe action against the possibility of the league losing money.
For the past two days, Seattle Seahawks running-back Marshawn Lynch has stolen the show at media day. Very predictably he came out with another short phrase to repeat in order to avoid a fine for not speaking with the media:
Lynch is laughing all the way to the bank as he sells his “Beast-Mode” hats he wore to media day. Lynch used NFL cameras, space and time to get free advertising to sell those hats.
What was Goodell’s reaction to the day? He fined Lynch for wearing the hat which wasn’t NFL approved.
Again, Goodell is so focused on the money that he’s not seeing the entire picture.
The league holds these events is for the fans. Media Day is a means to have the players and coaches talk all for the paying audience that keeps this league in business. The media is only the messenger.
Apparently, the NFL doesn’t care that Lynch makes a mockery of the entire situation.
Could you imagine if every player took the same approach as Lynch? What if New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath had that same attitude prior to Super Bowl III? The famous guarantee never would’ve happened.
For all those who back Lynch, don’t tell me this is America and that he’s afforded “freedom of speech.” Of course he is, but this is the NFL and he’s responsible to do the right thing for his team, the league and most importantly his fans.
He can say as little as he wants while not playing in the NFL and not making millions.
You’re telling me Goodell couldn’t get with Lynch and figure something out, encouraging him to speak? Or how about threatening suspension for the Super Bowl if he didn’t speak?
Of course not. Instead he fines him for the hat because it upsets their advertisers that he’s not wearing affiliated merchandise.
Goodell couldn’t even get to Lynch if he wanted too. The players despise the man for his perceived unfair treatment among different topics.
And who could blame them? When it comes to the issue of money, players receive more punishment, it’s just that simple.
Eventually, chasing the almighty dollar instead of maintaining respect and integrity of the game will catch up to the league and Goodell in the end.
Unfortunately, Tagliabue, a man the players loved, already sees it coming.
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