As a Patriots fan I have never been too fond of Roger Goodell. Yes, he looks like the ultimate businessman but he has no idea how to run the NFL, or any large corporation that deals with large sums of money. Since he came into power 2005 he has drastically changed the way football is played, especially when it comes to player safety. When concussions were the talk of the town in late 2014 and early 2015 Goodell tried to dodge a bullet and claim that CTE didn’t really exist. If you’ve seen Concussion, you know that Doctor Omalu tried to prove his findings but the league knew that he could potentially ruin the sport. Case and point, Omalu was taken care of and the players that have dealt with concussions were given a small settlement from the league. No matter how important concussions and player safety may be Goodell has failed to handle a multitude of other situations including Ray Rice, Tom Brady (don’t even get me started), and Josh Brown.
Case Number One: Ray Rice was a small, swift running back that got into an altercation with his wife in an elevator. In case you haven’t seen the video, it consists of Rice pulling his wife by her hair into an elevator and later out of it. Yes, there was a ton of evidence released to the public about his “incident” and it was sent to Roger Goodell. Instead of making an example of Rice, Goodell decided to give him a minor two-game suspension while he was facing an indictment by police. Let me repeat that, Rice only got two games for assaulting his wife in a public area. Scoreboard: Roger Goodell-0 Fans, authorities, and anyone else involved in the NFL in some way-1
Case Number Two: Tom Brady, the poster boy the NFL is accused of potentially deflating footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship Game. In this case Goodell actually decides to investigate and catch Brady and the Patriots red-handed. He ends up with the Wells Report, which kind of proves that the NFL went out and investigate a lot of people that they think were involved in the situation. Beyond that, Deflategate and a ton of its stories are on the national media and “scientists”. At the end of the day Brady received a four-game suspension and the Patriots managed to go 3-1 in his absence. Scoreboard: Roger Goodell: 0 New England Patriots fans, franchise, players, draft picks, and fitzy: 1
Case Number Three: Well, Josh Brown is no longer “old news” he has successfully become the most infamous punter in NFL due to his assault against his wife. Over the past two weeks he has been cut by the New York Giants and put on the Commissioners Exempt List. This is one situation where the Goodell actually handled the situation well, even though it was not in a timely manner. Yes, the New York Giants players stood behind Brown when he was accused of assaulting his wife which I don’t think that is necessarily the right thing to do. Simply put, Josh Brown does not deserve to play football and the punishment actually fits the crime. Good job, Roger! Roger Goodell: 1 Everyone else: 0
