Goodell sets up VP of "social responsibility"...

SB39 said:

These "training" sessions crack me up. 1% of players smack their wives and girlfriends around so 100% of players have to go to seminars and spend an entire afternoon being told it's not ok to smack your wife or girlfriend around.

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As Parcells said, 20% of the League gets 80% of the attention....

I thought he would announce Mike Tyson for the job

What exactly does she do?

SB39 said:

Good Lord, we are literally fewer than 100 hours removed from the Peterson revelation and people are already criticizing the league for not chopping his head off.

I'm not saying they should wait for the entire legal process to resolve, but nor should they start throwing out suspensions based on nothing beyond initial media reports.

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The league should not chop his head off but give a clear stance on what kind of behavior they want to be associated with. Even if in the end the entire legal process declares what AP did legal, this is still the very lowest possible standard that you can adhere to. Is this what the NFL strives for ?


In an ideal world the league should have the power to deactivate him pending an internal investigation through some external person that has to be finished within short amount of time (e.g. 2 weeks). If the investigation doesn't come up with anything substantial he gets reinstated until further notice. If they come up with things, they can extend the entire process to take longer.

I am just sick of the league positioning themselves as an entity that communicates awareness of everything but then doesn't enforce those values consistently. They can't have it both ways.

Deus Irae said:

The NFL is not a social gathering, and it's not a moral arbiter. It certainly has no business serving as a secondary policing force. The problem isn't that the NFL hasn't done enough. The problem is that the NFL was already meddling far too much.

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There's more nuance to it than that. The NFL is absolutely a moral arbiter insofar as enabling a culture of domestic violence and so on leads to bad PR which can potentially impact revenues, and cynical PR moves aren't enough to hide that. There's also many who would argue that corporations have a social responsibility, though then we're getting into politics - though, in theory, the workers themselves collectively bargained such a social responsibility with the NFL.

PATS16N0 said:

This sounds so 21st century American it hurts

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Borderline Canadian if you ask me. Being politically correct while you're still a dirt bag deep down is just sugar coating.

Deus Irae said:

The NFL is not a social gathering, and it's not a moral arbiter. It certainly has no business serving as a secondary policing force. The problem isn't that the NFL hasn't done enough. The problem is that the NFL was already meddling far too much.

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If they only care about the bottom line and all of those awareness events are just a facade then you are right. However, if the league and all the teams really care about community outreach et al then they should hold themselves to a higher standard than the lowest possible one (i.e. "well what player x did was legal").

What it looks like to me is that they mostly care about the bottom line, but still want their brand to be considered very highly. The problem is that very often those two approaches are at odds with each other.

luuked said:

If they only care about the bottom line and all of those awareness events are just a facade then you are right. However, if the league and all the teams really care about community outreach et al then they should hold themselves to a higher standard than the lowest possible one (i.e. "well what player x did was legal").

What it looks like to me is that they mostly care about the bottom line, but still want their brand to be considered very highly. The problem is that very often those two approaches are at odds with each other.

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From his opinions in previous threads, I think Deus Irae believes in the federalization of the league, so to speak - that teams should be responsible for discipline, not the league office. I'm not sure that I disagree with him in theory (though it also calls into question things like revenue sharing, etc.), but central office discipline was one of the major demands by management in the last round of CBA negotiations.

I think the feeling on management's part is that the NFLPA would have much more leverage negotiating a separate CBA with each owner (which would be necessary for such an arrangement), compared to the full weight of the central office and all 32 owners forming their own trade association, so responsibilities for discipline and so on go to the central office as well.

primetime said:

There's more nuance to it than that. The NFL is absolutely a moral arbiter insofar as enabling a culture of domestic violence and so on leads to bad PR which can potentially impact revenues, and cynical PR moves aren't enough to hide that. There's also many who would argue that corporations have a social responsibility, though then we're getting into politics - though, in theory, the workers themselves collectively bargained such a social responsibility with the NFL.

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The NFL has lower rates of criminality, and domestic violence, than the general population.

Deus Irae said:

The NFL is not a social gathering, and it's not a moral arbiter. It certainly has no business serving as a secondary policing force. The problem isn't that the NFL hasn't done enough. The problem is that the NFL was already meddling far too much.

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No one has forced the NFL to pursue as large and diverse an audience as it can possibly reach. It has chosen to do so.

In so choosing, its activities have been enabled by significant legislative and regulatory Anti Trust exemptions and protections. So exempted and so protected, it has an obligation to assure that the public behavior of its players and members is consistent with a broad societal consensus on what is appropriate and inappropriate public behavior. The abuse of women, children and animals are all outside the spectrum of society's consensus about what is appropriate. An indictment or any material behavior that reasonably requires the attention of the courts or law enforcement is "public."

In addition, the NFL directly markets its product to minors. In that context, it has an obligation to set standards for the public behavior of its players and members and, indeed, to "meddle" if those standards are not met.

luuked said:

If they only care about the bottom line and all of those awareness events are just a facade then you are right. However, if the league and all the teams really care about community outreach et al then they should hold themselves to a higher standard than the lowest possible one (i.e. "well what player x did was legal").

What it looks like to me is that they mostly care about the bottom line, but still want their brand to be considered very highly. The problem is that very often those two approaches are at odds with each other.

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We have police forces to do the policing in this country, and the NFL is not the employer of the players, so the NFL has no business in this. Players are employed by the individual teams.

I do agree that part of this is on the players for caving in the CBAs, no question. The leagues should be able to monitor PEDs, in order to assure a level playing field among the teams, and it should be able to set up the rules of conduct (play and play related) on the field. Beyond that, if a player wants to smoke a joint, or he breaks the law, that's for the teams to deal with. The players have been fools to give such power to the owners, who already dominate the sport.

Deus Irae said:

The NFL has lower rates of criminality, and domestic violence, than the general population.

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Those are the facts. And, when people in "the general population" behave in that way, they are put in jail or otherwise punished in a manner that society feels reflects the gravity of the crime. The NFL failed to apply a similar standard to its players.

PatsFanSince74 said:

No one has forced the NFL to pursue as large and diverse an audience as it can possibly reach. It has chosen to do so.

In so choosing, its activities have been enabled by significant legislative and regulatory Anti Trust exemptions and protections. So exempted and so protected, it has an obligation to assure that the public behavior of its players and members is consistent with a broad societal consensus on what is appropriate and inappropriate public behavior. The abuse of women, children and animals are all outside the spectrum of society's consensus about what is appropriate. An indictment or any material behavior that reasonably requires the attention of the courts or law enforcement is "public."

In addition, the NFL directly markets its product to minors. In that context, it has an obligation to set standards for the public behavior of its players and members and, indeed, to "meddle" if those standards are not met.

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Now we're getting into complete nonsense. Holy cow, for your own sake as a thinking human being, I hope you don't really believe that idiocy.

PatsFanSince74 said:

Those are the facts. And, when people in "the general population" behave in that way, they are put in jail or otherwise punished in a manner that society feels reflects the gravity of the crime. The NFL failed to apply a similar standard to its players.

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The NFL does not put "the general population" in jail. The police/justice system is responsible for that.

You seem to be missing that most obvious of realities.

Deus Irae said:

The NFL does not put "the general population" in jail. The police/justice system is responsible for that.

You seem to be missing that most obvious of realities.

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Give Goodell some time ,DI....he'll have a maximum security NFL prison staffed by deaf dumb and blind guards by next week.

This really belongs on r/nottheonion. The Goodell administration has become a parody of itself. Unbelievable.

Joker said:

Give Goodell some time ,DI....he'll have a maximum security NFL prison staffed by deaf dumb and blind guards by next week.

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The stupidity of the NFL is something I expect, although it keeps pushing the envelope on even that.

What gets me is the number of adult men, every single of one of whom should know better, who buy into the bull.

Deus Irae said:

We have police forces to do the policing in this country, and the NFL is not the employer of the players, so the NFL has no business in this. Players are employed by the individual teams.

I do agree that part of this is on the players for caving in the CBAs, no question. The leagues should be able to monitor PEDs, in order to assure a level playing field among the teams, and it should be able to set up the rules of conduct (play and play related) on the field. Beyond that, if a player wants to smoke a joint, or he breaks the law, that's for the teams to deal with. The players have been fools to give such power to the owners, who already dominate the sport.

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So we don't need a way to make sure that discipline among teams is also done consistently ? Or would this be the task of the NFLPA ? Would there even be a NFLPA in your world ?

I am seriously curious, mostly because I agree that ideally it should be the teams decision but I just don't see how we would end up with anything but the same problem that we have right now which is teams hiding behind "due process" while their owners cry in the public about the dilemma they are in.

luuked said:

So we don't need a way to make sure that discipline among teams is also done consistently ? Or would this be the task of the NFLPA ? Would there even be a NFLPA in your world ?

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Here in the United States of America, we already have police forces to deal with criminal situations. They screw it up enough. We don't need extra layers of incompetence.

luuked said:

I am seriously curious, mostly because I agree that ideally it should be the teams decision but I just don't see how we would end up with anything but the same problem that we have right now which is teams hiding behind "due process" while their owners cry in the public about the dilemma they are in.

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Kraft cut Christian Peter, rather than allow him on the team. The Bengals and Raiders are famous for allowing all sorts of unsavory types on their team. This stuff has happened even with there being an NFL overseeing everything.

In short, you're trying to build a straw man.

Now Anna Isaacson can suspend Peterson and Goodell can say he had nothing to do with the suspension and collect a bunch of money for passing the buck... this is laughable.

She sounds like a porn star or Saturday Night Live Character, but looks like a lawyer...