NFL Owners in disarray as Goodell is losing control of the league

[1960Pats]

I don't buy the 'he would sue so we have to give it to Stan' angle. There are 3 plausible reasons Stan won the LA battle: (1) His deal would make the league the most money and/or expose the league to smaller financial risk. (2) Politics and power. One group saw the opportunity to garner power -- possibly a you scratch my back and I'll scratch your back elements. (3)(and the least likely based upon how that snake pit works) Stan's deal was simply the better deal for the NFL.

But the owners gave up the LA deal based on fear of being sued? These ivory tower dwellers don't strike me as worried about going to court. To the contrary they strike me as wanting to show everyone they'll go to court at the drop of hat (thereby signalling court cannot be used to leverage/bully us).

I was only going by what was proposed in the article, that the owners feared a lawsuit by Kroenke, which brought me back to the claim by some fans here that Kraft's hands were tied.

 

[RayClay]

Which puts the lie to the claims of how "influential" he was.

Obviously. The league he worked for, more work than the commish, I'd argue, stabbed him in the back.

Caesar thought he was pretty influential too.

 

[RayClay]

So all of those fans here who were declaring that Kraft's hands were tied were wrong?

Anyone can sue. What would he sue for, a punishment levied by the commissioner of a club he willingly joined, where he agreed to abide by any judgments of the commissioner?

He could probably sue as an owner to eliminate the anti trust exemption, the draft and the salary cap. Probably nee to form your own league too.

The commissioner doesn't enforce laws, he enforces agreements among members. That doesn't involve any laws that i know of, unless they agree to ritual sacrifices, or something.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Obviously. The league he worked for, more work than the commish, I'd argue, stabbed him in the back.

Caesar thought he was pretty influential too.

The Caesar anecdote is in interesting one.

Depending on what theory you believe, Caesar was killed because the other senators were fearful that he was threatening their political interests- either thru tyranny or cutting into their privileges as members of the Roman Senate with the intent of expanding democracy in the Roman Empire.

If we believe that the other owners were jealous of Bob's power and influence on league matters with Goody, then the other owners pressured Goody to pursue Deflategate knowing that it would fracture their relationship and provide opportunity for other owners to gain more influence on league matters. Could be that other owners didn't necessarily go along with Bob's agenda or philosophy on how the league should be run?

 

[JoeSixPat]

Anyone can sue. What would he sue for, a punishment levied by the commissioner of a club he willingly joined, where he agreed to abide by any judgments of the commissioner?

He could probably sue as an owner to eliminate the anti trust exemption, the draft and the salary cap. Probably nee to form your own league too.

The commissioner doesn't enforce laws, he enforces agreements among members. That doesn't involve any laws that i know of, unless they agree to ritual sacrifices, or something.

Right

The question of "can he" and "should he" are two different issues.

I can see many reasons why Kraft could come down on the side that the cons outweigh the pros for him. For me? Yeah, I'd prefer to hold every owner accountable and can't fathom how they assert Goodell qualifies as Commissioner based on their own "unquestioned integrity" criteria for the position.

But even here I expect Kraft would quietly be working behind the scenes if he intends on ousting Goodell, as much as I'd love to see that aired in public.

Given what Kraft has already stated I see no reason why he shouldn't push to have the draft picks returned at this point in time - even though I take at face value his decision to "give a pound of flesh" to the owners who were using DeflateGate as an excuse to force parity in the NFL by suspending Brady - even though hindsight proves him wrong, I recognize what he was trying to achieve

 

[RayClay]

The Caesar anecdote is in interesting one.

Depending on what theory you believe, Caesar was killed because the other senators were fearful that he was threatening their political interests- either thru tyranny or cutting into their privileges as members of the Roman Senate with the intend of expanding democracy in the Roman Empire.

If we believe that the other owners were jealous of Bob's power and influence on league matters with Goody, then the other owners pressured Goody to pursue Deflategate knowing that it would fracture their relationship and provide opportunity for other owners to gain more influence on league matters. Could be that other owners didn't necessarily go along with Bob's agenda or philosophy on how the league should be run?

Sounds logical, but who knows? What it seems like, based on recent articles, is that they're a bunch of greedy egomaniacs who are aligning
for their own selfish interests, the league be damned, and need a strong commissioner, not a week unprincipled jellyfish.

Maybe Kraft was acting like a defacto commish and the other kids in the sand box didn't like it. He did basically take over the two most important accomplishments that goodell should have controlled in the CBA and TV contracts.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

The Caesar anecdote is in interesting one.

Depending on what theory you believe, Caesar was killed because the other senators were fearful that he was threatening their political interests- either thru tyranny or cutting into their privileges as members of the Roman Senate with the intent of expanding democracy in the Roman Empire.

If we believe that the other owners were jealous of Bob's power and influence on league matters with Goody, then the other owners pressured Goody to pursue Deflategate knowing that it would fracture their relationship and provide opportunity for other owners to gain more influence on league matters. Could be that other owners didn't necessarily go along with Bob's agenda or philosophy on how the league should be run?

I'm thinking this is more like Moby ****. Captain Goodell Ahab and some of his foaming at the mouth crew got the Great While Whale in their crosshairs-- while Starbuck Kraft was a crewman with a lot of power but was destined to fall because he was in the way of getting the whale.

To me this makes the most sense of what clearly is utterly inexplicable sense/logic. The devout worshiping at the altar of PR and the singular focus on appeasing the media gods has warped that office's thinking badly. Moby Brady was exactly the right guy to throw into the proverbial volcano and silence god's thunder (so to speak) and Ahab and that section of his crew never stopped to ask 'does the whale actually deserve to be killed' due to being too wrapped up in what its death could bring (pardon the metaphor mixing )

 

[BradyFTW!]

I've noticed that neither of my kids (30 and 33) care much at all about it anymore, after having grown up in New England and as Pats fans, nor do any of their friends, regardless of where they live.

I think part of the toxic atmosphere currently in the NFL (which Goodell has not only fostered, but in many ways been the catalyst of) has made it so that if your team isn't playing in the game, lots of fans are actively turned off of it. I'm certainly one of them. I watched less than half of SB 50. In general, I just don't really care about NFL games that don't feature the Patriots anymore. I still watch a fair number, but only for fantasy purposes or to try to keep up on who's good and to get a sneak peak of who the Pats are playing later in the season. And none of that applies by the time the SB rolls around, so if the Pats aren't in it I'm pretty much out.

At this point I watch the Patriots in spite of the NFL, so if you remove them from the equation I'm left with negative incentive to tune in. And living in California, I have friends that are fans of all sorts of teams. I count Raiders, Chargers, Saints, Bears, Falcons, Seahawks, Vikings, Steelers, 49ers and Broncos fans among my fairly close friends, and most of them are more or less in the same boat. Even the ones who are diehard fans of the sport itself and love college football hate the league office, and watch to support their team in spite of it.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Just a gut feeling, but I think Roger may have finally jumped the shark by attempting to embezzel $123 million from the players and funnel it to the owners

The owners themselves may have no choice but to completely distance themselves and kick in what was probably a pre-arranged severance/bail package, as the owners are likely smart enough to heed Chris Carter's "get a fall guy" advice

Hopeful thinking? Who knows - but I think the tide is starting to turn at least among some in the credible non-ESPN media.

If there's a media feeding frenzy over this hidden $120 million, then questions as to the integrity of matters that impact on field play by withholding draft picks or trying to bench the best player in the game turn into a snowball effect of the NFL becoming the "No Fair League"

The sooner the focus turns on the owners themselves, the sooner Goodell will be gone