Is it really Goodell?

[RecoveringCowboy]

I'm not doing Sympathy for The Commissioner in case you wonder.

Someone else suggested this - Goodell might just be taking orders from the other owners....i.e. Deflategate was not an executive decision to 'get' the Pats, but owners telling Goodell he had to.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall. Is Goodell a strong but corrupt commissioner, or a puppet? I lean towards the latter, although I certainly would not characterize any of his predecessors of being spineless.

One of the biggest issues in this country is CEOs and other C-level officers becoming fatter cats while the subordinates get less of the pie or even cut out - consumers also getting the shaft....the 32 NFL owners resemble that model even more these days.

I would be tickled if Goodell was punted out of Park Ave, but I fear we would just see a new face grinding the same old axe. If I'm right, I'd love for someone on the inside to whistle-blow, get this in court and heads to roll. CTE is the most likely vulnerability.

 

[Wheelman]

I'd say he's both. He's entirely complicit in all of this. He's looking after his own needs which means pleasing the majority of the owners. He's a bad person just like the 32 corrupt owners.

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

He has lasted this long as commissioner because a monkey could do his job. He's the most overpaid clown on Earth.

 

[Jlaff]

Would love to see Goodell as the "fall guy" in the CTE scandal. Man would that be awesome.

The thing I've noticed about Goodell, is the ginger seems to have utterly convinced himself he's exceptional. I have no doubt he thinks $44 million a year is his fair market value. And I've never seen a dumber person more convinced of their own intelligence. This is evident by the way he awkwardly snakes his way through scandal after scandal. He thinks he's smarter than us.

His problem is he's not that smart, but he doesn't know it (remember, he's got that shiny communications degree). So to him, someone of lesser intelligence (an actual clinical moron), would be easily tricked by the spouting of the word "integrity" every second sentence. He's sure he's got us fooled, because someone of lesser intelligence could be tricked by that. And he's half right, someone of lesser intelligence than him would be fooled by that, he just doesn't realize how low he is on that scale, and how much higher everyone else is relative to him. Heck, he even thought he was smarter than the judge in the Ray Rice appeal, he pulled that same low-level garbage with her and thought it would work. And of course she wasn't fooled, and called him out on it.@turkeyneck posted a great link to a psychological theory, I can't recall the name of now, but it explained quite well how dumb people don't know they're dumb.

My point that I'm taking forever to get to is - that even if it were simply the owners pulling his strings, I don't even think Goodell would realize he's not in control. He thinks he's exceptional, why wouldn't they just always automatically defer to his exceptional judgment then? Why wouldn't they want him making the "big decisions", remember he's "worth" that $44 million. Every decision made for him would be "his" decision in his own mind, so for me he can't escape the absolute entirety of the moral blame in any way.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I'm not doing Sympathy for The Commissioner in case you wonder.

Someone else suggested this - Goodell might just be taking orders from the other owners....i.e. Deflategate was not an executive decision to 'get' the Pats, but owners telling Goodell he had to.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall. Is Goodell a strong, but corrupt commissioner or a puppet? I lean towards the latter, although I certainly would not characterize any of his predecessors of being spineless.

One of the biggest issues in this country is CEOs and other C-level officers becoming fatter cats while the subordinates get less of the pie or even cut out - consumers also getting the shaft....the 32 NFL owners resemble that model even more these days.

I would be tickled if Goodell was punted out of Park Ave, but I fear we would just see a new face grinding the same old axe. If I'm right, I'd love for someone on the inside to whistleblow, get this in court and heads to roll. CTE is the most likely vulnerability.

The biggest issue is politicians who are in power because they make their constituents happy by voting on pork barrell spending bills but are incompetent buffoons who can't recognize what leadership actually is.

 

[Sicilian]

The owners are a huge part of it, no doubt. But strong leaders are able to corral egos like the 32, and satisfy them while still maintaining some semblance of sense, fairness, and professionalism. Goodell is clearly not a strong leader.

Think of it like a teacher. Teachers have to do their job while constantly hearing from INSANE parents who all think their special snowflake is getting a raw deal. A good teacher can placate the parents without compromising their standards as an educator. A bad teacher just gives in to the parents because they're afraid someone will get them fired.

 

[turkeyneck]

a psychological theory, I can't recall the name of now, but it explained quite well how dumb people don't know they're dumb.

Thast would be the Dunning-Kruger Effect:

The Dunning-Kruger Effect: Are the Stupid Too Stupid to Realize They’re Stupid?

It fits Goodell and his close underlings to a T.

 

[fair catch fryar]

Doesn't matter. The man is an absolute tool.

 

[Tunescribe]

Those who think he is only the owners' puppet/front man are mistaken. Goodell has more power and autonomy than we have been led to believe, you can count on that. He hatches many of the initiatives the owners later vote to approve.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Anybody who is being paid $30 or $40 million dollars a year by a handful of people is being paid to do exactly what that handful of people want him/her to do. He is not being paid to think on his own. He is not being paid to have his own ideas. He is being paid to keep the money train running, avoid strikes and generally to do what he is told. He was hired because the owners felt that, in Goodell, they had a "true believer," who knew nothing but the NFL and who would do their bidding.

Why are the circumstances around Goodell different than Tagliabue? Because the owners are richer and greedier and more insistent on getting their way. The combined value of the 32 NFL franchises was around $70 billion last year, growing at an absurd annual rate. These are not people who want to hear anything but "Yes, sir," from their hired help. This is not Paul Tagliabue's NFL.

Why do his bumbling, idiotic mistakes look so bad? Because they occur in the light of a voracious, 24/7 media machine. There is little doubt in my mind that he did exactly what the owners wanted in the case of Spygate, Bountygate, Bullygate, Ricegate, Deflategate and every other mess that has occurred in recent years. When they blew up in everyone's face, it ended up in the lap of a guy getting paid a lot of money to take the crap.

I think it's no accident that they hired Joe Lockhart to handle the press; anybody who could spin Bubba to the Washington media is probably well-suited to spinning the NFL owners to the sports media.

The CTE scandal might be the one mess created by the owners for which they might have to actually fire Goodell, not because they want to or because they didn't want to admit that head trauma was a problem, but because it's blowing up in their faces and it's really bad publicity.

Think about it like this. In your mind, pick an annual compensation figure that you think is fair for what you do and your level of training and talent. Think on the generous side.

Then multiply that by 30 to 50 times and imagine a group of guys coming to you and offering to pay you that, under contract, if you will do what they want. In a fair market, with his extensive experience in and knowledge of the league as a multi-billion dollar enterprise, Goodell is probably worth a salary of less than a million a year doing whatever for the league. They're paying him the difference to do what they say.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

goondell was hired because he is weak. the owners can just push him around to drive their agenda.

 

[PittPatriot]

He has lasted this long as commissioner because a monkey could do his job. He's the most overpayed clown on Earth.

I agree. But as much as I dislike him, I marvel at his stiff upper lip. Despite all the criticism...being called a liar, corrupt, etc...he just keeps doing what he is ordered to do (presumably) but the owners.
I could see him doing that the first few years...but now he has more money than he ever could spend. At some point, I expected to see him come undone. Nothing so far...

 

[borg]

Goodell lords over his Park Avenue administrative minions but owners control the big picture agenda. Owners and the public demanded harsher penalties for players conduct and he gave them what they wanted. Factor in the constant tug of war with the NFLPA over all issues…..and deflategate became a proxy for bigger issues and nothing but an act of God/Congress could alter their dug in position….regardless of recent facts.

 

[The Brandon Five]

Whichever it is, I think it is clear that the product on the field is getting worse. The first five weeks of this past season were pretty crapulent. Spurred on by another thread, I watched a little bit of "Three Games to Glory" from the 2001 season. That to me seemed like a much more enjoyable game to watch. I wasn't automatically looking for a flag on every pass play.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I agree. But as much as I dislike him, I marvel at his stiff upper lip. Despite all the criticism...being called a liar, corrupt, etc...he just keeps doing what he is ordered to do (presumably) but the owners.
I could see him doing that the first few years...but now he has more money than he ever could spend. At some point, I expected to see him come undone. Nothing so far...

well, everybody's definition of "all the money he can spend" is different. But, more importantly, we don't know the exact terms of his contract, including whether there's a provision for a major bonus at the back-end for meritorious service. We also don't know if there aren't claw-back clauses if he fails to do their bidding under certain circumstances.

 

[ReverendMaynard]

I don't think the distinction is important. If the ommissioner does/says something, I'll just assume it's both his personal stance and that of the majority of the owners. If either side doesn't like it, they can either get rid of the other or go into great detail as to who specifically is creating the pressure that's forcing them to do/say something other than what they personally believe in.

 

[AvocadoIceCream]

Most of it is actually coming from the owners....

And as lame as it is, this is what Kraft deserves after what he did to WASH and DAL after that BS during the uncapped season, in which they were still punished for some reason.

Should have had their back, Bobby

 

[ReverendMaynard]

Most of it is actually coming from the owners....

And as lame as it is, this is what Kraft deserves after what he did to WASH and DAL after that BS during the uncapped season, in which they were still punished for some reason.

Should have had their back, Bobby

Yup.

He championed the Enforcer commissioner, a man with neither a law or law enforcement background.

He backed the enforcer when they changed the burden of proof for the league to just "more probable than not."

He backed the enforcer when he levied draconian punishments on his own team over a rules interpretation dispute, calling his own GOAT coach a schmuck.

He backed the enforcer when he levied draconian punishments against the Saints when there was little or no evidence that anything that wasn't also happening in every other locker room across the league was going on, including pressuring the owner to take one for the 32 despite disagreeing that they had done anything worthy of punishment.

He backed the enforcer when he levied draconian punishments against the Cowboys and 'Skins for failing to adhere to a salary cap that some owners illegally colluded to establish in an uncapped year. Again, he urged the owners to take one for the 32 despite disagreeing that they had done anything worthy of punishment.

He backed the enforcer in matters of player discipline despite repeated beat downs any time a 3rd party, even somewhat less than neutral 3rd parties such as ex-commissioner Tagliabue, was given a chance to review said discipline, even excusing outright lies when called out by a retired federal judge (allowing him to "prove" his innocence via an "independent" report the NFL paid for.)

 

[Tunescribe]

Anybody who is being paid $30 or $40 million dollars a year by a handful of people is being paid to do exactly what that handful of people want him/her to do. He is not being paid to think on his own. He is not being paid to have his own ideas.

I disagree COMPLETELY with this. Yes, he absolutely is doing what the owners want him to do -- which INCLUDES hatching initiatives, floating trial balloons and presenting proposed courses of action for ownership consideration. No freaking way is Goodell micromanaged by 32 other individuals. His office has more autonomy than anyone here wants to believe.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I disagree COMPLETELY with this. Yes, he absolutely is doing what the owners want him to do -- which INCLUDES hatching initiatives, floating trial balloons and presenting proposed courses of action for ownership consideration. No freaking way is Goodell micromanaged by 32 other individuals. His office has more autonomy than anyone here wants to believe.

He doesn't make any material moves without the approval of a core group of the owners.

And, he doesn't have to be "micromanaged." He knows exactly what they want. If he's not sure, he asks. they wouldn't have given him the job and paid him all that money in the first place if they didn't think he was a "true believer," who sees the world the way they do and is smart enough to as questions if he's not sure.