Roger Goodell - Ray Rice

The NFL season is finally under way, but the biggest story in sports is Ray Rice. I wish this was not a subject of conversation, but I must express my opinion about it at least once. I could write about why domestic violence is awful, but that goes without saying in my world. Instead, I choose to call out NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for the cowardice he shows on a regular basis now. For the most part, Goodell has done a good job as commissioner. He was brought in initially for his law and order principles, and he actually had credibility at first. His No Fun League policies may have irked fans, but ultimately it helped the brand to have players handle themselves more professionally. The constant threat of hefty fines and suspensions seemed to be a good deterrent for bad behavior. I had no issue with the way Goodell recently handled the Josh Gordon and Colts Jim Irsay suspensions. Gordon appealed his season long suspension for his fourth drug violation by arguing that he only had trace amounts of marijuana in his system. Goodell was right to uphold the ruling because the CBA states that Gordon would face the proper suspension for a fourth time offender. With Irsay, I was far more upset with the legal system than Goodell. It is ridiculous that a rich white man with a car full of illegal prescription pills did not receive any jail time, but that is a different issue. Goodell did not have much leverage to suspend Irsay any more games. Last week, Goodell implemented the new six game suspension doctrine for domestic violence. Many people were surprised when he admitted to getting the original decision to suspend Rice two games wrong. I was not surprised, however, because this is not the first time I heard this from Goodell. When bountygate happened with the Saints in 2012, he could not have been more stringent in his feelings against the team. The Saints were fined $500,000 and lost two second-round picks. GM Mickey Loomis was suspended for eight games. HC Sean Payton was suspended for the year, former DC Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, and assistant coach Joe Vitt was suspended for six games. LB Jonathan Vilma was suspended for the year, DL Anthony Hargrove was suspended for eight games, DE Will Smith was suspended for four games, and LB Scott Fujita was suspended for three games. I agreed with the punishment, except for what the players got. Coaches are paid to be leaders, and I believed Payton and Williams were at fault. Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who was appointed by Goodell to hear appeals, agreed that players were treated unfairly and overturned Goodell’s ruling in December of 2012. Goodell did not have authority to specifically suspend players for bounties without going through an arbitrator, but he used a blanket “conduct detrimental” clause to get around it. Vilma accused him of performing a shoddy investigation also. The fact that Goodell never refuted the new findings was an admission of guilt in theory. He took such a hard stance, only to wilt away and disappear when called out. I knew then that he had no backbone.

The idiotic way Goodell handled the Rice situation seems to exemplify who he really is. When the original video outside the elevator surfaced in February, it was accompanied by a police report stating that Rice struck his fiancé and knocked her unconscious. The league had access to this information. Goodell, however, praised Rice for the strides he was making to rehabilitate himself. Rice was granted a pre-trial intervention so that he and his fiancé (now wife) could go to therapy. The legal system sat on their hands too, but Goodell accepted this and moved on. I believe that he just assumed that the legal system did its job and that the NFL did not need to do a real investigation. The original two-game suspension was ridiculous, but I defended the fact that a new six-game policy was instated quickly. I also understood why Rice’s previously clean record would have made the original ruling murky. I do not understand, however, why Goodell changed everything after seeing the new tape from inside the elevator. Right after it surfaced, the Ravens cut Rice and the NFL suspended him indefinitely. I scratched my head at the suspension. What happened to six games? Where was this outrage when you read the police report? Under the new policy, players like Ray McDonald and Greg Hardy should get six games (McDonald may get more because the woman was pregnant). If so, this would be significantly less than what Rice received. This proves that Goodell thinks domestic violence is worse if it is caught on tape. All of this might lead to a new policy where everybody guilty of domestic violence gets an indefinite suspension. I would have no problem with this, but I have no idea what the policy is currently. Goodell has shown that he is the type of commissioner who could change policies every day based on what television shows say about him. He should learn something from NBA commissioner Adam Silver. When the Donald Sterling controversy happened, he took a strong stance. He made a ruling, knowing that he would be accused of overstepping his bounds. He stood firm, however, because he knew he was right and that people would support him. By taking a real stance, he got the job done. On the other hand, Goodell bumbles through any issue that he gets questioned on. In the aftermath of the Josh Gordon issue, the league is changing the marijuana threshold in the testing. This may be the right end result, but it would be nice if it did not take Goodell eight tries to get something right.

Goodell is defending himself by saying he did not see the tape, but this is utter nonsense. He knew what occurred because of the police report, but did nothing. He could have easily gotten the tape from the casino or Rice’s defense team, but did not. Ignorance was bliss for him, and now he’s caught in his own lie. I criticize MLB commissioner Bud Selig all the time, but he exhausted every end in order to get evidence in his PED investigations. The way Goodell investigates is by looking at social media to see what people think about an issue, and decides after the fact. He is spineless, and should lose his job. His credibility is gone, and I assume every word out of his mouth is a lie. Terrell Suggs was accused of horrific violence toward his wife, but the charges were dropped. I do not believe Goodell even mentioned this at any point. All he cares about is his own image. Everything he does moving forward is about repairing his own image, not about the victim. If he did care about the victim at all, he would have taken a real stance when the evidence was presented to him in March.