Money, Power and Roger Goodell

Matt Aaron, who leads Inconclusive Evidence in personal fouls, sounds off on Roger Goodell

September 1st, 2006 Roger Goodell took office as the NFL Commissioner, succeeding Paul Tagliabue. Less than a year later, Goodell introduced a new player conduct policy which he certainly is implementing to its fullest. He has stressed a desire to start a franchise overseas and to expand the regular season by two games. We currently have different rules of overtime for the regular season and postseason. Fines are also at an all-time high, being dished out weekly. All of this activity makes me believe that the current Commish has never heard the phrase, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”

I completely understand why Goodell strolled into office and wanted to tackle the league’s image before it slipped out of control. In 2006, the Bengals had 9 different players who had been arrested. The artist previously known as Pacman and the late Chris Henry were getting into severe trouble and the media was running with the theme of a league filled with “thugs.” Goodell made the assessment that the players and the teams that have them under contract will feel the consequences of negative actions.

            Goodell quickly developed a reputation that he is going to be rigid with his punishments. Tank Johnson, Mike Vick, Dante Stallworth, and Ben Roethlisberger all were suspended for what was determined contact detrimental to the league.

             I do not have any major issues with most of those suspensions. I can make an argument that Roethlisberger’s suspension was excessive on an epic scale, because he was never arrested and there was never a criminal case filed on him. A case can also be made for Mike Vick who paid his debt to society and still was suspended, but I do see Goodell’s reasoning behind each decision. I do, however, have a problem with the recent inconsistency from the Commissioner. Roger has never been as severe with coaches as he is with players, though the conduct policy states that all NFL employees are accounted for. Bill Bilicheck was never suspended for “Spygate” and neither did Josh McDaniels for his recent home video. Goodell was quoted as saying that the use of the camera during the Patriots’ season-opening 38-14 win over the New York Jets had no impact on the game. If it did not have an impact on the game, then why did he take a draft pick away? More severe punishment was needed. Last summer, Cedric Benson was arrested for allegedelly punching a bartender in the face. The Cincinnati running back was arrested multiple times in 2008, yet he has never been suspended. Tennessee Titans quarterback, (who knows for how long), Vince Young, was the star of a video that quickly turned into an internet sensation when he clearly attempted to punch another person. After trying to hook-a-horn while at a strip club, VY begged Goodell to not suspend him on twitter the next day. He was never penalized.
               One chapter in the 2010 season book is definitely titled; When Personal Fouls turn to Personal Grudges. James Harrison is mean, we all know this, but he is not THAT mean. As of today, Harrison’s fines have topped 125,000 dollars, most of which are on borderline calls. He is not the cleanest player in the game, but the hits on Josh Cribbs, Vince Young, Drew Brees and definitely Ryan Fitzpatrick, did not warrant a fine. Throwing a flag is one thing, but continuing to fine a man because he is “repeat offender” is ridiculous.

           I cannot say for sure, but I have a strong feeling that the communication between the referees and the NFL office is not as smooth as it needs to be. The refs feel added pressure to throw a flag, because they do not want to let a play go, that later will lead to a fine. Harrison gets called two weeks ago for “driving Campbell into the ground,” and last week gets the flag/fine combo for hitting the Harvard grad in his chest. These penalties literally had ESPN personality and former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer say on the air, “I do not even want to talk about.” Steve Young also sounded off on these ridiculous calls. There is not a muscle that Harrison can touch on a quarterback right now. With that being said, Cortland Finnegan and Andre Johnson get into a fight in the middle of the field and get simply a 25K fine. Personally, I believe Finnegan deserved an old time whooping like he received, but that does not give AJ permission to do so. Punches were thrown after the play, clearly not in the act of playing football. Millions of people, including young children witnessed Johnson throwing haymakers and he gets the same punishment as a borderline roughing the passer call on Harrison. But then again, Andre Johnson plays this Thursday on the NFL Network and the NFL office definitely does not want him out for their game.
          

Sun-Sentinel

 
             The flags and fines are flying all over the place in order to protect player’s safety, yet Goodell wants the season to expand by 2 games. With or without multiple bye weeks, that is absolutely ridiculous in terms of player safety. Steelers’ wide receiver Hines Ward stated that player’s careers will have YEARS cut off it if the league goes to 18 games. If Goodell did not think this would hurt individual players, than he would not have proposed that rosters would increase if the number of games do. Clearly, a lot more players are going to get injured in this scenario.

            Hopefully by next season, the overtime rule will be the same for both the regular season and the postseason. I have no problem with him trying to make the rule fairer, but it must be the same the entire season. (Stay tuned in the next couple weeks for Dr. Matt Aaron’s flawless idea for NFL overtime here on Inconclusive Evidence)

            Lastly, expansion overseas to me simply sounds like the NFL is getting greedy. NFL Europe was losing 30 million dollars a year by its conclusion in 2007. I understand that more competitive and athletically gifted players will be showcased with a NFL team in Europe, but traveling time, costs and energy would be epic. The NFL currently makes sickening amounts of money and I do not think it would be worth the trouble to start a team overseas.

            Many internet message board posters refer to Goodell as a dictator, a man with too much power. I strongly believe that deep down he does care about the safety of his employees, I just believe he is going at it wrong. Communication levels are not there and the game is starting to change drastically. The NFL still has too good of a product to lose its fans, which is why Goodell can get away with attempting to experiment with curious decisions. I will conclude with this, his emphasis on head injuries is something that future retired players will thank Roger for and he does deserve positive remarks for that.