Is Roger Goodell Good or Bad for the NFL?

[Old Lion]

Goodell is just a front man for the owners. He made $44 million looking stupid for the owners.
Obviously, he is a lot smarter than us.
This makes it worse for me. Knowing that he knows the Wells "report" is a mocked up bunch of crap and he is still acting like it means something - despicable.....

Whats worse is Brady will still get suspended or at least heavily fined because of it. Typical of how the world works today. Only perception matters. Truth is just window dressing.

 

[BigKen]

Goodell has done a great job until recently protecting the NFL Brand and working to make the NFL extremely accessible to fans. Product sponsors line up to pay millions for a 30 second hit at the Super Bowl. Others are paying billions to be part of the NFL product.

Goodell has sucked when dealing with the game of football and the players. He's a horrible boss for what is actually the product of the NFL and that's the players.

He continually uses the phrase, "the Integrity of the NFL". The problem is that he placed it in the greatest position of peril ever. How you ask? 2015 AFC Championship Game. The league receives a complaint from the Indianapolis Colts that the New England Patriots may be using balls that are not pressurized to league standards. Instead of calling Robert Kraft and telling him that the league will have security people to check ball pressure before they are used in the Championship game, he decides to allow a "sting" operation in an attempt catch the Patriots doing something illegal to the balls. During the first half, an Indianapolis Colt intercepts a Tom Brady pass and states that the ball "feels soft". Amazingly, a ball in possession of the Colts is the only ball that is a reported 2 LB PSI under the league minimum. All of the balls are re-pressurized to 12.5 PSI at halftime. All of the Patriots balls are tested at halftime and none of the pressures are recorded. Only four of the Colts balls are tested because the "wasn't enough time to test all of them".

So the NFL Commissioner, stating integrity, would knowingly allow a team to play with footballs not to league standard in a championship game, in order to "catch" them doing something? Integrity? Willing to possibly compromise a game to catch the guy he hates more than anyone else (Belichick) breaking the rules.

What was the worst part of this operation? The league caught it's own league officials stealing game balls an immediately putting them up for sale for personal gain. Balls that were to be given to charity to raise money to support them. Again, people who report to the commissioner hurt the "Integrity" of the NFL.

The owners have failed to recognize that for all of the financial and NFL brand good that Roger Goodell does and has done, he is a horrible people supervisor and his disciplinary abilities are terrible. When you're paying a guy $45M a year it's extremely hard to tell him that he needs to get some training and work on his people skills.

 

[TBBishop]

This is not an @rmilia type troll thread. I'm dead serious. I'm baffled by the outrage against Goodell and unless you can convince me otherwise, I'm going to stick my nose in the air and say it's the ignorance of the unwashed masses.

My gawd man, we've had posters on this board literally publicly calling for the murder of Roger Goodell. We assumed they were drunk and would back off the morning after when confronted but they stuck to it and said they wouldn't even feel bad for his family if he was murdered.

That's an extreme case but everywhere I go I see the same pattern of "hang the dude."

If Roger Goodell were bad for the NFL, why would owners with Robert Kraft leading the charge, give consensus support?

If revenue and future growth are the bottom line, then you tell me why this guy is a "fucking disaster."

I don't see it.

I've been wondering this too, Hammer. People loved Tagliabue. This culture that Goodell has at least tried to clean up blew up under him. David Stern essentially took physical out of the game of basketball to the point where a lot of people won't even watch anymore. When asked why they say it's not the same without Jordan, Bird, Magic, blah, blah, blah but what it seems to boil down to is the game is different. And Stern was an arrogant prick while doing it but he doesn't get the backlash that Goodell gets. And I don't think that I agreed with a single thing that Bud Selig did in his far loo long tenure as baseball's head man. Certainly Goodell has screwed up, everyone does, but most of what he has done has been pretty good IMO.

 

[tedman2012]

just in the commish is flipping a coin heads brady get 4 games and tails he gets more ..

 

[Money]

People loved Tagliabue.

Tagliabue was as corrupt as they come.

 

[Keystone]

People loved Tagliabue.

People loved Pete Rozelle.. no one better in my lifetime.

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

He should a been canned long ago.... I don't hate the guy, but he's not good for the game... Under his watch so many changes have taken place making it harder and harder to play defense...

 

[TP76]

He should a been canned long ago.... I don't hate the guy, but he's not good for the game... Under his watch so many changes have taken place making it harder and harder to play defense...

While I agree with you, that's really not his gig (directly) - that comes from the Competition Committee

 

[redseat]

From a money perspective (and basically that's all the league cares about) he certainly is good for the NFL. His decision making skills in regards to player troubles and fines can certainly be taken into question. It's not solely him making bad decisions but he certainly deserves a lot of blame for the way the league handles situations and not just deflategate, I'm talking about every situation in the past 2 or 3 years.

 

[DHoey]

Good. Next question.

 

[Eugene Baker III]

Goger Roodell is probably the only common thread between the Owners and the Players.

He has made stupid mistakes but the owners make more money every single year then they did the year before.

That is what keeps a CEO as CEO.

 

[strightkid08]

Roger Goodell doesnt give 2 s$#%s abou the game. All he cares is how to make more and more money

 

[HammerDown]

Roger Goodell doesnt give 2 s$#%s abou the game. All he cares is how to make more and more money

Dude, how many IPs do you have?

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

While I agree with you, that's really not his gig (directly) - that comes from the Competition Committee

Yeah I know they play a big part also...

 

[Money]

From a money perspective (and basically that's all the league cares about) he certainly is good for the NFL. His decision making skills in regards to player troubles and fines can certainly be taken into question. It's not solely him making bad decisions but he certainly deserves a lot of blame for the way the league handles situations and not just deflategate, I'm talking about every situation in the past 2 or 3 years.

In his defense, those 2 or 3 years have included some seriously f'ed up situations that no other commissioner ever had to worry about. He's far from perfect, but I think he generally gets a raw deal from fans.

 

[Wolverine830872]

I don't understand the vitriol against Goodell. Think of all the crap he has to deal with:

1. Keeping the players happy. Without the players there is no league. The new CBA is great for the players in that they get a guarenteed portion of the revenue that the league brings in. When profits rise, so doe sthe salary cap. The NFLPA is always bringing up some sort of complaint against the league. Goodell has done a great job in giving in to some demands without it suffocating the league.

2. Dealing with Former Players. There is lawsuit after lawsuit of former players claiming that the NFL knew about risks to head injuries but did nothing to stop it. All of this happened before Goodell ever became commissioner of course but he has to deal with the fallout. Because of it, the league is doing everything they can to make the game as "safe" as possible to take away as much momentum as possible that any of the pending lawsuits may have. If you hate how the NFL has become less physical under Goodell, just wait until after any successful lawsuits. If that happens we can kiss the NFL that we have come to love goodbye.

3. Balancing 32 team ownership groups with their own agendas. These are his bosses. I can't imagine the delicate balancing act that he has to walk to get them to toe the line in doing what is best for the league even if it hurts their bottom line. We now have three teams wanting to relocate to LA. How the hell will that work? That is something that Goodell will have to figure out. If SD and Oak both move to L.A., then I would imagine one of those teams would have to switch to the NFCW. St. Louis is also trying to move. Does the league want three teams in LA? If St. Louis gets red lighted, is the league also going to kick them into the AFCW as a booby prize?

4. Contracting with sponsors, vendors, and media outlets. Goodell has been genius in this regard. The media deals that the league has been getting is astronomical. WAY above the other major sports leagues. This is because those media outlets know that they will in turn be able to get a ton of sponsorship to recoup that money and then some. For other sponsors who want in on the action, they can instead contract directly with franchises or the NFL. You can be the "official truck of the NFL" or the "official toilet paper" of the 49ers (which would be genius marketing as they'll be awful next year). Goodell is also branching off into alternative media markets, which taps into a whole new arena. Yahoo! got the first ever rights to a streaming feed. That's brilliant. Also Goodell is trying to put out feelers to get back into Europe, but is doing it in a very responsible business-oriented way (instead of a new NFL Europe league). Genius in my opinion.

5. Entertaining the fans. We're the crux of this empire. When we lose interest, nothing else matters. Goodell has made the draft a spectacle within itself. Moving it out of NY was great to get fans more in on the action. Televising the combine is genius. The NFL Network gives the diehards just that much more coverage if they want it. And Goodell never wastes a good controversy as well. The deflategate report was completed before the draft but Goodell waited to release the results under after the SportsHoopla of the draft was over and the league was in a dead cycle for news. Then, BOOM, more crap for us to talk about during the slow months. Then drag out the appeal, then drag out the result of the appeal. Pretty smart on his part. I know I'm eating it up even with the knowledge (assumption?) of what he is really doing.

6. Maintaining the Integrity of the Game. This is the toughest part of his job. It really is almost a by-product of everything else he has to do. Without the perceived integrity by the fans, then we lose interest. This becomes doubly hard when the players, and team employees, and owners do something bad, whether it be DV, drug use, DUI, or cheating. Goodell has to balance those personalities all-the-while appeasing the masses and our slapstick reactions and demands of action.

Goodell has managed all of this with amazing resolve in my opinion. If you think he is a blowhard that thinks he should be booted, do you think you could really do a better job?

 

[redseat]

In his defense, those 2 or 3 years have included some seriously f'ed up situations that no other commissioner ever had to worry about. He's far from perfect, but I think he generally gets a raw deal from fans.

Damn you and your logic. Still... I don't like the guy. But you do have a good point.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

I guess I am a dumbfuck of the masses then. He handling of player and team discipline issues has been just appalling. He has done some business things well, and he managed the cba negotiation as well as could be expected, but I'm aware of numerous "pseudo" fans - the type the league is trying to grow with - who are so turned off by the clown show he has run that they won't watch the game any more. I don't know whether the owners are plugged into that dynamic or not. That's just what I see. But according to the OP, I'm just a dumb fuck, so who cares? I'd like to see him fired. I think he has severely harmed the integrity of the game, such as it is.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

I couldn't agree more.

If the fucktard players would stop creating scandals and breaking the rules, Goodell wouldn't be forced to deal with this nonsense and thus would have a pretty solid track record as commish in the court of public opinion. Let's keep the focus on the rule breaking players. They should be the ones getting lambasted not Goodell.

It's like these dumbass fans that say the league needs to change the rules on weed when a player get's popped. Idiotic logic at its best.

I couldn't agree more.

If the fucktard players would stop creating scandals and breaking the rules, Goodell wouldn't be forced to deal with this nonsense and thus would have a pretty solid track record as commish in the court of public opinion. Let's keep the focus on the rule breaking players. They should be the ones getting lambasted not Goodell.

It's like these dumbass fans that say the league needs to change the rules on weed when a player get's popped. Idiotic logic at its best.

Regardless of your perfectly salient point that the players can be fucktards, he - or his office, if you prefer - has generated their own share of unforced, jawdropping harm on the league. If you haven't read the report on how the league office handled bountygate...you should. He should be fired for that alone. And whatever you think of the pats or the deflate issue, goodell and company made some major league screwups that are - by any standard - worse than even the worst thing the patriots themselves may have done. The leaking of totally hullshit PSI values to ESPN the day after the game, and then when it became clear those numbers were all bogus even to the most antiPats guy out there, that was just appealing. To name just one thing. The list is long. I'm sick of being embarrassed for being an nfl can when people ask me "how can you support such obvious bullshit". And there's just no good answer.

 

[Scooby-Doo]

Regardless of your perfectly salient point that the players can be fucktards, he - or his office, if you prefer - has generated their own share of unforced, jawdropping harm on the league. If you haven't read the report on how the league office handled bountygate...you should. He should be fired for that alone. And whatever you think of the pats or the deflate issue, goodell and company made some major league screwups that are - by any standard - worse than even the worst thing the patriots themselves may have done. The leaking of totally hullshit PSI values to ESPN the day after the game, and then when it became clear those numbers were all bogus even to the most antiPats guy out there, that was just appealing. To name just one thing. The list is long. I'm sick of being embarrassed for being an nfl can when people ask me "how can you support such obvious bullshit". And there's just no good answer.

Then stop watching. Problem solved for you.

The game is more popular than ever. I wonder how much more popular the NFL would be if Goodell was doing a good job.