By Roger Goodell is the worst commissioner in North American sports.
Goodell has one job: protect the National Football League and its owners. His job is not to make the players happy; his job is to make the owners of the league’s team even more absurdly rich than they already are.
When you more severely discipline someone who “was generally aware of wrongdoing” (Tom Brady, 4 games) than someone who punched their fiancée so hard that they couldn’t function cognitively for several minutes (Ray Rice, 2 games), you have a problem.
It’s easy to criticize Goodell for his ham-fisted punishments and hypocritical grandstanding, but if he’s doing things that are in the best interest of the owner’s financial situations, like negotiating extremely favorable television contracts, can you really be mad at him?
You can’t.
However, if Goodell’s lack of understanding interferes with the way that fans enjoy NFL games, that’s a problem.
Suspending Tom Brady for four games on the basis of being generally aware of wrong-doing and a lack of understanding of the Ideal Gas Law, on the NFL’s part, is absurd. Depriving NFL fans of seeing arguably the greatest quarterback in league history in what is likely one his last few seasons in the league because he wouldn’t let the commissioner look at his cell phone is ridiculous.
Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Tom Brady and Greg Hardy have all recently defeated the NFL in litigation, making the NFL 0-4 regarding disciplinary actions over the last year. In the NFL, there is no independent advisory panel on discipline, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that the NFL needs one who isn’t Roger Goodell.
The NFL Players Association needs to take a hardline stance during the next round of Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations in 2021 and demand that there both be a creation of an independent disciplinary panel that consists of league officials and player advocates, as well as an overhaul of the appeals process.
The overhaul process should also clearly remove Goodell from any dispute resolution duties, as it is an obvious conflict of interest when he has to rule on matters where there is not a free and open evidentiary discovery process.
This prevents the players who are in arbitration with Goodell from cross-examining investigators or challenging evidence, which is an obvious problem when it prevents your fans from watching the players they pay good money to see.
It’s inappropriate to suggest that players like Rice, Peterson and Hardy shouldn’t be punished, because it’s clear that they’ve harmed people close to them and damaged their own image as well as the League’s with their poor judgement.
The way Goodell has ruled on cases has largely been arbitrary and it’s making him look more and more incompetent.
The end does not justify the means for Goodell, especially when the end product feels like a sham and the process to get there involves so much doublespeak and shady back alley investigating that you’re not sure if Goodell is pulling an elaborate ruse to stay in the headlines throughout the off season or is just an insufferable tyrant.
