Roger Goodell is ruining the NFL

You must love football if you're willing to sit though 2 hours of commercials for a 90 minute game.

That's why people hate the sport.

 

Gratz though: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/sports/nfl-roger-goodell-contract-.html

 

The NFL has been trying to cover up CTE and other brain injuries for a long time now. Goodell is the one who has had to actually deal with the fallout. The game, as is, is just too dangerous to be considered "safe".

They will do what they can to minimize these brutal hits, but this is still a gladiator bloodsport.

 

This. Once you see yourself as contributing to a sport where people are shortening their lives and bringing on an avalanche of physical and mental problems, you just can’t really watch it anymore.

And spare me the “these are grown ups getting paid millions of dollars and they know what they’re doing” bull crap. People used to duel or smoke cigarettes while pregnant. At some point energy drinks will also get outlawed or at least greatly diminished. You gotta learn to protect people from themselves and not take advantage just because you can.

 

These players know what they are signing up for. But the CTE class-action settlement was already doled out. They are doing too much damage control and are a wounded product right now compared to the NBA. That is why Cuban, Trump, (Powerful people with vendettas against the NFL) etc smell blood in the water.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with you. What you are witnessing is gross mismanagement. I was an administrator of a moderately sized organization, nothing the size or scope of the NFL, but public and complex. I ran it for over a decade and left to take another opportunity. It should be obvious to anyone who has taken Management 101 that Goodell is the highest paid clueless chief executive in the world. He is reactive, inconsistent, indecisive, plays favorites, and is either getting some amazingly bad advice or is just basically foolish. You can detail incident after incident during his tenure where he ends up making virtually everyone mad. From Ray Rice to Tom Brady: stupid, stupid, stupid. But this season, he has outdone himself. When "Pink October" first appeared, I thought "good cause/wrong venue." It was a glimpse of things to come. When you are selling a product that is already tainted by accusations of medical malpractice, it is especially important to steer away from causes, movements, and most of all politics. It is an entertainment business. Your potential audience is "fun seekers." Maybe they should be, but they are not interested in social justice, police brutality, or race relations. Once you identify with one side in a political debate you have offended half your potential audience. So, when you are in the entertainment business, keep it light and stay focused on fun. Even being reminded of "cancer" for a month isn't fun. Do the social stuff outside the stadium. He has created an almost unredeemable mess. If he is renewed for 50 million, let the suicide watch begin. The league will go down like Enron.

 

Thoughts? Agree/disagree

 

The only things I can absolutely say Goodell handled poorly:

1) Ray Rice situation

2) Early response to CTE/TBI discoveries (although that was very much an inherited problem on his part)

3) Reaction to league-wide anthem protests

Everything else is kinda meh or no-win situations.

 

Uh, the Zeke Elliott suspension?

He went out of his way to circumvent his own company's due process on the matter.

The evidence against Elliott's accuser was pretty concrete.

 

honestly, im all for big hits and all bc its football and thats going to happen but you could say theres a line between just plain dirty and unnecessary. obviously theres a lot of gray area there but we have a good idea of when a hit is dirty for the most part. some of those hits during the pitts/cincy game are extremely questionable

 

Not very familiar with the goings-on of that as it's so recent.

Links explaining?

 

I'm not gonna dig up all the links right now but from what I understand happened, the NFL investigator recommended Elliott NOT be suspended and Goodell possibly still thinking back to the disastrous Ray Rice 1 game decided to dole it out anyway after assuring JJ it wasn't going to happen.

The Rog just phoned up JJ out of nowhere without even a standard warning period and dropped it on him. JJ after a long pause finally basically says "I'm coming for your ass now. Kraft ain't **** compared to what I'm bringing."

 

The NFL is in steady decline and Roger Goodell is the perfect guy to continue the slide. Using a sports analogy, this is the equivalent of Microsoft giving Steven Ballmer a 10-year extension in 2013 instead of shoving him out the door and hiring someone else to turn the company around.

I have truly hated the NFL as an organization since the lockout and almost want it to fail.

 

Goodell just got an extension.....insane.

 

Just wondering, do you consider this a football move?



I completely agree with you on Goodell in general but don't think it's as easy as saying 2 were football moves so they don't deserve suspensions. The game is changing and 99% of the players have changed with it. Sure there are just instances of bad luck but there are plays where guys are straight headhunting. Differentiating between the 2 is easier said then done but think the league can do a better job at it.

And saying they were just playing the game they were taught is a terrible excuse.

 

These things are cyclical. Right now, it's MLB and NBA's time to shine. The NFL is hurting a bit and will take some time to right the ship. I don't think that Goodell is the man to take them back to prominence, though. The next CBA will have to take the power to punish out of his hands. Treating the Cincy/Pitt situations the same as the Gronk one is ridiculous.

It's how the NFL handles the downturn in the next 5-10 years that will determine the long term future. They're still very profitable, even with the lower ratings and ticket sales. They have time...but I do believe it will have to be with someone else at the helm.

 

Goodell takes too much blame IMO. The owners are doing it to themselves. I never got the impression that he was brought in to do anything more than act as a puppet and appease the majority of NFL owners. Now they're paying him to keep doing it.

 

But what about all the 'fun' end zone celebrations this year?