TPOP: What I would change

Here is the latest article from The Point of Pittsburgh. My portion is the second half, but feel free to read the entire article. Enjoy.

http://www.thepointofpittsburgh.com/whats-the-big-idea-changes-to-national-football-league/


A few weeks ago, the editors of The Point of Pittsburgh asked me to ponder the following question: If you could change one aspect of the NFL, what would it be? Since I was on vacation, visiting family in Pittsburgh and West Virginia, it was the perfect time to ask my relatives their thoughts on this very question. Overwhelmingly, the answer was something along the lines of: “Get rid of Roger Goodell.”

I chuckled, and simply shrugged this off as Steelers fans being Steelers fans. But as my travels continued, so did the ire towards Roger Goodell...

If you know of anyone else who might enjoy this, feel free to pass it on.

Nice read.

Great write up teegre! You're spot on with your points on the rules needed to be changed as well as Goodell ruining the integrity of the game. The only thing I would say is that the NFL fans are still eating the apple ... ratings continue to go through the roof. Until people begin to turn away from the game, the NFL will continue to make more money. I admit that I was pissed beyond belief when Harrison got that hefty fine on the Massaquoi hit, the Spygate slap on the wrist, and now the Brady slap on the wrist for obviously compensating individuals to steal footballs from the refs locker room and deflate them. But I continue to watch the games.

has anyone considered the possibility that the goofy shit that comes out of goodells mouth may be spoon fed to him by his 32 bosses ? do you think he is the one really pulling the strings and his decisions are made unilaterally ? i think he's nothing but the lightning rod for 32 greedy billionaires.

stlrtruck wrote:

Nice read.

Thanks, truck.

(I can't wait until the games start; I want something "real" to write about.)

kirklandrules wrote:

Great write up teegre! You're spot on with your points on the rules needed to be changed as well as Goodell ruining the integrity of the game. The only thing I would say is that the NFL fans are still eating the apple ... ratings continue to go through the roof. Until people begin to turn away from the game, the NFL will continue to make more money. I admit that I was pissed beyond belief when Harrison got that hefty fine on the Massaquoi hit, the Spygate slap on the wrist, and now the Brady slap on the wrist for obviously compensating individuals to steal footballs from the refs locker room and deflate them. But I continue to watch the games.

You know... I'm guilty. I still watch, despite the fact that the NFL is slowly starting to get a quasi-WWF feel to it.

Hawaii 5-0 wrote:

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

has anyone considered the possibility that the goofy shit that comes out of goodells mouth may be spoon fed to him by his 32 bosses ?  do you think he is the one really pulling the strings and his decisions are made unilaterally ? i think he's nothing but the lightning rod for 32 greedy billionaires.

I think that a few of the owners use Goodell like a puppet. I also think that as long as he makes the rest of the billionaires lots & lots of money, they won't complain about this puppetry.

OWNER 1: Goodell is an idiot.

OWNER 2: Amen.

OWNER 1: He also made me enough money to buy a new yacht for each of my seventeen grandkids.

OWNER 2: Let's fly out on my new G6, to thank Goodell for that.

teegre wrote:

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

has anyone considered the possibility that the goofy shit that comes out of goodells mouth may be spoon fed to him by his 32 bosses ?  do you think he is the one really pulling the strings and his decisions are made unilaterally ? i think he's nothing but the lightning rod for 32 greedy billionaires.

I think that a few of the owners use Goodell like a puppet.  I also think that as long as he makes the rest of the billionaires lots & lots of money, they won't complain about this puppetry.  

 

i'm just pointing out that everything goober does is done with the blessing of the owners , or at least the majority. they hired him and also voted to renew his contract along with a big fat raise. the blame for the ruination of the league needs to be put where it belongs and thats on the team owners including rooney , not their mouth piece patsy.

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

teegre wrote:

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

has anyone considered the possibility that the goofy shit that comes out of goodells mouth may be spoon fed to him by his 32 bosses ?  do you think he is the one really pulling the strings and his decisions are made unilaterally ? i think he's nothing but the lightning rod for 32 greedy billionaires.

I think that a few of the owners use Goodell like a puppet.  I also think that as long as he makes the rest of the billionaires lots & lots of money, they won't complain about this puppetry.  

 

i'm just pointing out that everything goober does is done with the blessing of the owners , or at least the majority. they hired him and also voted to renew his contract along with a big fat raise.  the blame for the ruination of the league needs to be put where it belongs and thats on the team owners including rooney , not their mouth piece patsy.

I'm not so certain the owners are involved in the individual punishments handed out by Goodell (league office). Hence you have Kraft out there acting like an insulted fool when Deflategate broke. Yes, the owners are likely giving their approval of rule changes/enforcement, but I don't see the widely inconsistent punishment of the infractions floated through the ownership first. It's that inconsistency that is ruining the game. You have a team that has cheated their way from championship to championship and gets slapped on the wrist. Then on the other hand you have Ben getting a 6 game suspension without being charged and had to jump through hoops to get it reduced to 4. And to think there was much more evidence of the Patriots*' and Brady's transgressions than Ben's.

The worst mistake people can make is to think Goodell is a fool. He's not a fool, he's an ass who plays obvious favoritism until there's such an uproar that he has to dole out a fair punishment.

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

teegre wrote:

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

has anyone considered the possibility that the goofy shit that comes out of goodells mouth may be spoon fed to him by his 32 bosses ?  do you think he is the one really pulling the strings and his decisions are made unilaterally ? i think he's nothing but the lightning rod for 32 greedy billionaires.

I think that a few of the owners use Goodell like a puppet.  I also think that as long as he makes the rest of the billionaires lots & lots of money, they won't complain about this puppetry.  

 

i'm just pointing out that everything goober does is done with the blessing of the owners , or at least the majority. they hired him and also voted to renew his contract along with a big fat raise.  the blame for the ruination of the league needs to be put where it belongs and thats on the team owners including rooney , not their mouth piece patsy.

Kirkland basically said what I was going to say:

Helmet-to-helmet rules: the owners completely back him up on this. (They don't want to be sued/lose millions.)

Punishments: this is his own thing. I truly doubt that the owners have input on suspensions.

Goodell is like a watchdog. He keeps the owner's assets safe. But, every once in a while, he tracks mud into the house. The owners may not like it, but as long as he keeps their money safe, they'll look past his "minor" imperfections.

.

Nice article Teegre, completely agree. when the commissioner attracts this much negativity its time for him to leave. He's hurting the league by staying. The commissioner has to appear fair, consistent, and impartial, Goodell has failed to do that. Tagliabue never attracted this much negativity.