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Roger Goodell: Ignorance Is Not An Excuse In Ray Rice Situation

ATippett56 said:

SpyGate - debacle
BountyGate - debacle
Replacement Referees - debacle
Ray Rice/Janay Palmer - debacle

Roger Goodell's tenure as commissioner of the NFL has been a complete disgrace.

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Goodell (and Kraft) kicked the hell out of the NFLPA on the CBA. Until this situation blew up, that's all that the owners cared about.

Ironically, if the CBA had just contained what I had/have advocated (i.e. Not the league's business to deal with criminal situations, but the individual teams if they choose to do so, Goodell/NFL should not be judge, jury and executioner on discipline, league shouldn't be punishing for non PED drugs), Goodell would be fine today. His overwhelming victory on the CBA could actually end up being the reason he's brought down.

And I've got my popcorn ready.

SB39 said:

The vast majority of the above complaints are not about the Ray Rice bungling but other things like penalties for unnecessary roughness.

Anyone who thinks those rules are going to change back to the way they were if the NFL hires a new commissioner is a complete moron.

Sorry, folks, but the coming decade will do nothing but continue to strengthen rules that protect the players, not the opposite. That will be true no matter who is commissioner.

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Exactly

Its all about avoiding future lawsuits.

no Triumph...no one here is asking for any rollbacks of the rules. That's a straw man concocted by 39. Goodell is in this mess because of his complete and utter miscalculation of the Rice case and his attempt to cover it up. He has DENIED ANY KNOWLEDGE over and over and every day more and more solid sources are reporting he DID KNOW, HE DID HAVE ACCESS and is caught in a web of lies.

The owners sign off on the rules. Any competent commissioner can perform the duties necessary to adjust the rules as needed.What is NOT needed from a commissioner is an almost complete detachment from the real world when it comes to serious issues like concussions, drugs, player criminality, and blatant spousal abuse. It's 2014, not 1814.

BTW...I was informed by Goodell's remora that this whole thing would be yesterday's news ...LAST WEEK.

Here's the back page of the NY Post....Goody is also on the front page...heh..."all is well" says Kevin Bacon...

#FireGoodell is the new #ThanksObama.

Taking away TD celebrations, fining people for dunking on the FG posts, etc. Ridiculous.

The flags and "emphasis" on certain rules are ridiculous and out of control. QBs can barely be touched, WRs can barely be touched, and anyone who is hit remotely hard will draw a flag whether it was clean or not.

Personally I liked helmet to helmet hits on WRs. But I understood why they took them out. Now they're going even further and flagging shoulder to upper chest hits, and even INCIDENTAL forearm to helmet hits.

There was a play in Thursdays game in the end zone where a Steelers elbow accidentally grazed the receivers head and a flag was thrown.

This entire pre-season was a joke due to the "emphasis" flags.


I don't think it would've gotten that bad under a different commissioner.

I don't have an opinion on Goodell, I'm Switzerland on him I guess. However I do understand the outcry about Goodell and the NFL's handling of the situation, but IMO that should be light years behind how the Prosecutor handled it. He seems to be getting, for the most part, a free pass thanks to the large shadow of the NFL. But allowing a dude who knocked out a woman with a punch to the face to go free via a diversion program, should be taken to task on that. If anyone deserves to lose his job its the prosecutor first and everyone else a distant second.

Another thing that bothers me is this BS that we can't openly discuss anything or give our opinions anymore without being suspended (49ers announcer) is ridiculous. Janay Rice certainly deserves scrutiny, (not for being a victim of course) everyone wants to hang Goodell in the public square, meanwhile she is out defending her husband FOR PUNCHING HER IN THE FACE! Why aren't the female senators taking her to task for pissing away an opportunity to show battered women everywhere how they should respond when their candy ass men hit them....and fight to have his candy ass put in jail? Where he belongs! Not coming out defending him, only to save the meal ticket.

Just my $0.02

I just find it ironic that he bent to public pressure to penalize the Patriots for spy gate, and now the owners will probably be forced to bend to public pressure to fire his ass.

moosekill said:

I just find it ironic that he bent to public pressure to penalize the Patriots for spy gate, and now the owners will probably be forced to bend to public pressure to fire his ass.

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Not to mention his general heavy-handedness on all infractions big or small and letting this slide by because he couldn't gauge the public reaction prior to it all coming out. He could have been his typical heavy handed self and allowed for Rice to come back earlier (if he thought rice deserved less time).

SB39 said:

The vast majority of the above complaints are not about the Ray Rice bungling but other things like penalties for unnecessary roughness.

Anyone who thinks those rules are going to change back to the way they were if the NFL hires a new commissioner is a complete moron.

Sorry, folks, but the coming decade will do nothing but continue to strengthen rules that protect the players, not the opposite. That will be true no matter who is commissioner.

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So lets just be DONE with it, and play flag football. Im QUICKLY losing interest in the NFL. Every year the rules changes, others are way over-emphasised, and yet others are called sporadically (see the interference on Gronk in the EZ last year). This is not the NFL I want to watch.

this comparison will probably net me jeers around here, but look at Soccer. How often do they change their rules? Never. The game is the game, and people love it for that. I understand the need for player safety, but when I see clean hit after clean hit on a QB get called for 'roughing', I want to puke.

Just give them flags for gods sake, and play 7v7. It'd be a better game than this crap we're seeing now.

There is a difference between the NFL trending in a direction where rules protecting the players are a priority, and the NFL trending in a direction where they implement any rule protecting players no matter how stupid. I don't mind seeing some rules implemented to better protect players as long as they aren't detrimental to the integrity of the game. But the way these rules are being implemented makes every one of the games being played feel fixed. Not 30 seconds ago I was listening to Boomer Esiason talk about how questionable penalties in on the Steelers safeties colored the outcome of that game.

I realize removing Goodell won't stop the direction the NFL is heading in, but maybe, just maybe, we could have someone implementing rules that thinks about the impact of rules before blindly implementing them AND isn't a total boob?

Haley said:

There is a difference between the NFL trending in a direction where rules protecting the players are a priority, and the NFL trending in a direction where they implement any rule protecting players no matter how stupid. I don't mind seeing some rules implemented to better protect players as long as they aren't detrimental to the integrity of the game. But the way these rules are being implemented makes every one of the games being played feel fixed. Not 30 seconds ago I was listening to Boomer Esiason talk about how questionable penalties in on the Steelers safeties colored the outcome of that game.

I realize removing Goodell won't stop the direction the NFL is heading in, but maybe, just maybe, we could have someone implementing rules that thinks about the impact of rules before blindly implementing them AND isn't a total boob?

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Last night's game was a great example of how the current rules/enforcement situation is a major problem. We're left to hope that the next Commissioner is not too blind to see it.

Deus Irae said:

Goodell (and Kraft) kicked the hell out of the NFLPA on the CBA. Until this situation blew up, that's all that the owners cared about.

Ironically, if the CBA had just contained what I had/have advocated (i.e. Not the league's business to deal with criminal situations, but the individual teams if they choose to do so, Goodell/NFL should not be judge, jury and executioner on discipline, league shouldn't be punishing for non PED drugs), Goodell would be fine today. His overwhelming victory on the CBA could actually end up being the reason he's brought down.

And I've got my popcorn ready.

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How right you are, Deus!

We all seem to have forgotten what a big deal the CBA was at the time. It's really the prism through which the owners see this, as the TV revenues pour into their bank accounts every week. They got a multi-year deal that secured those revenues on the terms they basically wanted without any "business interruption." They will never fire Goodell because the costs to the brand and the loss of whatever revenues might be lost because of the "image' problem is far less than the benefit that he has brought to them.

I think it is way above the average owner's IQ level to make the connection that you make to the implications of the discipline-related language of the CBA. It would also be too threatening for them to admit that particular truth.

BTW, I don't think Goodell is going anywhere (I've definitely changed my mind on that since earlier this week when I thought he was a goner), but if he does go away, I think it's far more likely that Goodell will get tired of being kicked around in the media and resign with a golden parachute than that he will ever get fired.

SB39 said:

Oh, I agree absolutely. The usual group of Goodell haters are using this incident as an excuse to cry for something they've been wanting for years. They don't care about Ray Rice, Janay Rice or the Ravens, it is little more than them seeing an opportunity to pounce.

There's a part of me that hopes Goodell does step down or get fired because when the next commissioner has the same problems and nothing in the league is better, I got about a couple thousand "I told you so's" I'll be dishing out.

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Roger Goodell is one of if not the worst commissioners of my life time. This latest scandal should be the straw that breaks the camels back.

Deus Irae said:

Ironically, if the CBA had just contained what I had/have advocated (i.e. Not the league's business to deal with criminal situations, but the individual teams if they choose to do so, Goodell/NFL should not be judge, jury and executioner on discipline, league shouldn't be punishing for non PED drugs), Goodell would be fine today.

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I agree with most of what you're saying, but not this part - teams will NEVER discipline their own guys if it's a detriment to them on the field. Even if playing the guy gives the NFL a black eye. For serious infractions (PEDs, arrests, etc) I think enforcement needs to come from the league.

And yeah, there definitely needs to be a different arbitrator of league justice than just the commissioner. A small panel, or an appointed discipline czar, or maybe something worked out between the NFLPA and the league (though that might be a stretch). There should probably be someone from outside the league involved, just to give perspective - it sure would have been useful in this case. Maybe SB39 can serve - he fancies himself impartial

Appeals cannot go to the same entity that did the original ruling, either - that's a ridiculous situation.

PrairiePat said:

I agree with most of what you're saying, but not this part - teams will NEVER discipline their own guys if it's a detriment to them on the field.

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History has already proven you wrong on this.

Deus Irae said:

Last night's game was a great example of how the current rules/enforcement situation is a major problem. We're left to hope that the next Commissioner is not too blind to see it.

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Can you explain? Sorry, I missed the game, but I am curious what you mean here.