I'm
not whining about Kraft, but this is a spurious argument. The "Article 46" disciplinary powers of the commissioner existed under a different name long before the new CBA, and they were never a focus of the negotiations because no commissioner (including Goodell himself) had previously chosen to abuse those powers so the NFLPA had no reason to believe they would be abused in the future. The narrative that the NFLPA buckled to the owners by agreeing to grant the commissioner sweeping new powers that they knew he would abuse has very little factual basis.
Commissioner’s power under Article 46 has been present since the first CBA
Yes, but 1968 was a very different time. A lot of things have changed, even since the days of Tagliabue, let alone Rozelle.
Players' conduct has changed, with the times. Society's standards have become much more tolerant of what would have been considered abhorrent to the public eye in 1968. In addition, what used to be "kept quiet" or easily (and wrongly) swept under the rug now occurs in the full light of a 24/7 internet and multi-media spotlight.
Most importantly, there is now very, very big money in the game. The owners today are fantastically wealthy people. Excessive wealth is often accompanied by a sense of omnipotence. According to Forbes, the 32 owners now possess Franchises with a Market Value of $70 billion, with significant annual growth and extremely high levels of revenues and operating profits. These guys don't feel that they are accountable to anyone.
So, Article 46 might have worked in another time and another era, but it no longer works. Goodell is the hired help, whose actions are driven by a handful of greedy and at times spiteful owners, who pay him $30 or $40 million per year to do exactly what they tell him to do it, when they tell him to do and exactly as they tell him to do it.
In that environment, Article 46 needs to be drastically changed and there needs to be provision for a permanent, independent arbiter or, in some cases, board of arbiters.
Allowing the owners to have a Commissioner as a puppet on their string to carry out their personal agendas no longer works:
Ray Rice? "Boys will be boys and we all like the Ravens so let him skate...oops there was a tape."
Bountygate? "The Saints aren't really part of the inner circle of the club, so **** them?"
Incognito? "Bullying a black guy from an Ivy-League-quality school looks bad. **** him too."
Belichick? "He's not one of the good old boys and he's making us all look bad by winning so many Super Bowls. Time for him to have his comeuppance." [technically doesn't apply since he's not a player, but it makes the point]
Brady? "Nobody can be that good. He had to be cheating. **** him."
Peyton? "He can do no wrong. Look the other way until he retires."
Kessler saw this in 2011 and wanted the Players to strike over changing the provision. He was right. It's time for change. Blaming Goodell doesn't work. It's the owners. If we had our way and Goodell was ****canned, they'd just find another errand boy.
