Roger Goodell the Coward
Nov 9, 2014; London, UNITED KINGDOM; NFL commissioner Roger Goodell attends the International Series game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Roger Goodell only cares about two things: Himself, and money.
He does not care about women and children. If he did, he would have started cracking down on domestic violence before a video of Ray Rice knocking out his fiancée in a casino elevator surfaced. Violence against women and children is as old as time. If he had cared to, he could have taken a stand after the hundreds of incidents that came before Rice. Even after knowing exactly what happened, he only took a strong stand because of the video. He looked dishonest and frazzled in the joke of a press conference held after the firestorm. A pretty accurate picture, I’d say.
He does not care about justice. If he did, he would follow the guidelines himself, the league and the NFL Players’ Union laid out. The original punishment for a first-time domestic offender was two games, which was incidentally why Rice was punished two games originally. Then the public caught wind of how ridiculous that was, he changed it to six games, but decided to send Rice and Adrian Peterson to Siberia anyway. I’ve said it before here and I will say it again now; Why even have an agreed upon policy if you are going to make the rules up as you go along anyway? Both Rice and Peterson deserved swift, harsh punishments for their actions. But they both also deserve a map and timeline to get out of the woods. Also, it is inherently unfair to make a scapegoat out of Peterson. What he did was wrong, but it’s not his fault that Rice struck his fiancée and Goodell bungled the investigation beforehand. Had Goodell had an actual plan in place before everything hit the fan, there would be a procedure to follow. He is a coward who is pretending to care, but is only acting tough to save his job.
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He does not care about the truth. If he did, he would give actual answers to the tough questions. Instead of B.S.-ing his way through interviews about whether he or anyone else in the NFL offices had seen the Rice tape, or what really changed to change Rice’s suspension from two games to God knows when. I doubt there will ever be a smoking gun that ties Goodell to that tape, but I certainly hope it exists and comes to light. There is no way the owners would allow him to survive that. I love the NFL and will continue watching football, but I truly believe Goodell is damaging the game. The owners really have no inclination to get rid of Goodell since the teams are making mountains of money. However, I think a chimp in a suit could make the NFL money with how popular it is. Goodell essentially is a chimp in a suit, actually. To keep the momentum the league has built up, the league needs a real leader, who knows what to do in good times and bad.
He does not care about the integrity of the game. If he did, he would not be pushing for an 18 game regular season. He would not have ignored the concussion issue for as long as he did. Safety seems to come second though when money is involved. He would not be pushing to put a team full-time in London. Logistics don’t matter though, it would make money, so he will try to make it happen.
This is a Minnesota sports website, so I will end with this: This whole Vikings season has been held hostage by the Adrian Peterson situation. Peterson is clearly most to blame, because he never should have done what he did to begin with. However, he has sat quietly this whole time, and should be allowed to come back. Take 6 game checks, enroll him in counseling, ban him for life if he ever fails again. But completely taking away his ability to play arbitrarily is nonsense, and unfortunately par for the course for Tsar Goodell.