The NFL’s decisions are never popular, but this one should change the game.
The National Football League needs to make a critical decision. Is the health of its players or the bottom line more important?
So far, the answer has been resounding.
On Monday, the United States Congress released a 91-page report detailing the league’s decision to withhold $16 million which it had promised to the National Institutes of Health in connection with a seven-year study to help determine the ties between concussions and CTE.
The NFL gave a $30 million unrestricted gift to NIH only to rescind the cash when it realized that Dr. Robert Stern of Boston University would be heading the project. Stern has been critical of the NFL in the past, and when the NIH refused to take Stern off the project, the $16 million tab fell to John Q. Taxpayer.
If there is ever a reason to demand NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s termination, this is the moment. Goodell has made a mess of everything from Ray Rice and Greg Hardy to continually getting in front of media members and giving couched answers to legitimate questions.
The owners have rallied behind him because the league has never been more profitable, largely because of an expanding international fan base and the most lucrative television contract in North American sports history.
In addition, the NFL has started to reach its tentacles across the internet. Finally, the league is going all-in with YouTube and Twitter, allowing better access than ever before including in-game highlights before the contest concludes.
Yet through all the money-grabbing, Goodell has been a blight on football. A commissioner who says nothing and simply lets the cash register run is lazy, but Goodell has been far worse. He is manipulative and calculating, allowing the working man to be held hostage in stadium negotiations and now, studies that should clearly be taken up by the NFL’s dime.
Goodell should be removed from the commissioner’s chair and replaced by someone with a background in public relations. Surround that individual by a group of smart, young aides who understand the changing climate of sports and let them give direction.
Lastly, find somebody who cares about the players who are all too often giving their lives to this game. The money will come to the owners and league regardless of who sits in the chair at the end of the table. The machine is already in place.
Right now, the machine is horrifyingly broken.