Those of you who are familiar with this blog and my work on social media know how I feel about NFL commissioner/warden/playa hater Roger Goodell.
I don’t like the man nor his mama.
I have long hated the way Goodell has handled the NFL’s concussion issue. I didn’t like the way he skirted away from the issue by instituting asinine rules where a defender could not breathe on a quarterback and receivers. If defensive linemen and blitzing linebackers come within a stone’s throw of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees they would be penalized and fined the next day.
Goodell is turning the NFL into powder-puff football before our eyes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes QBs wear pink jerseys and skirts.
I have also despised the way Goodell levied out disciplinary suspensions/fines. Not only had he set himself up as judge, jury and executioner when it comes to handing out suspensions and fines – he had appointed himself as the mediator in appeal hearings! As far as the punishments themselves, Goodell has been wildly inconsistent. He has gone for harsh punishments for convicted felons (Michael Wick’s dogfighting, Donte Stallworth’s drunk driving), athletes who had NEVER been charged (Ben Roethlisberger), to bonafide wrist slaps (Ray Rice).
Speaking of Rice, Goodell’s bungling of the domestic abuse case makes one thing to me clear: “Fraud-ger Goodevil” should resign or be removed from his role as commissioner of the NFL quick, fast and in a hurry.
Let’s look at how Goodevil handled this.
Everyone saw the first video, released just days after the February incident, when Rice was shown dragging his unconscious fiancee out of the elevator into the lobby. That was damning enough, but in today’s world, you knew there was a video of what happened behind closed doors.
So why didn’t the NFL demand to know those facts? Or did they know and chose to ignore them? What did Goodevil know about the second video, which was really the first video? The end result should really be the same either way, the commissioner’s conduct as the head of the most powerful sports league in the country has been so neglectful, so disrespectful, so reprehensible, that to continue on as commissioner is to spit in the face of common sense.
In lieu of seeing the video, or having a full understanding of what we all now understand to have taken place, the league instead chose to ask for Janay Palmer’s side of the story. Only, in cases of domestic violence, never is it appropriate to have the woman speak in the presence of the attacker (Rice), his employer (team officials) and multiple league executives.
Yet it happened on Goodevil’s watch.
Let’s not stop with the commissioner. The Baltimore Ravens fucked this up from the beginning as well.
Remember when the Ravens publicly had Rice’s back after he was charged?
Remember when head coach John Harbaugh called Rice “a heck of a guy”? Remember when the Ravens’ PR flunkie wrote a glowing piece about Rice?
That shit changed when TMZ showed that elevator video. The Ravens fired Rice, and the NFL called itself suspending Rice indefinitely. And now you have media members like this Ravens homer who sung the Ravens’ praises.
Give me a fucking break.
Since the Ravens fired Rice, where was owner Steve Bisciotti? And since he didn’t post at a night time news conference, where were the other leaders in the organization — president Dick Cass and general manager Ozzie Newsome? After terminating the contract of running back Ray Rice Monday afternoon, Bisciotti should have appeared before the media to address questions and publicly apologize for the poor judgment made by his franchise.
The decision was made by Bisciotti and he should have talked about the new video and whether the Ravens had seen it. If they had, why did the team support the two-game suspension by the NFL? Bisciotti also needed to explain why the team didn’t punish Rice separately from the league.
Instead he offered this wordy, but lame-ass open letter to personal seat license holders, suite owners and sponsors.
While both the team and commissioner both had some culpability in the Ray Rice cluster-fuck, I believe accountability starts at the top. Goodevil should man up for a change by stepping down as NFL commissioner and get the fuck out of Dodge – quick, fast and in a hurry.
Categories: NFL
RG set himself up for this fall. He should have formed a disciplinary committee that meets out punishment. His role as commish would be to weigh in on appeals only. By setting himself up as judge/jury/monarch/emperor/king/HNIC, he has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide if a decision blows up. Stupid/arrogant of him to take on this responsibility where so much could go wrong.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. LOL @ “HNIC” though…