Ruining The Game
What’s wrong NFL? You use to be on top.A year ago,baseball couldn’t touch you.Now the World Series blew you guys out in ratings.How come it’s all finally hit the fan for the NFL? I’ve been a big fan of the NFL since I was 8.In my junior high years, I started getting into stats and watching highlights of the best players.Then, I convinced my mother to buy NFL Redzone, which shows every touchdown from every game, because it was that damn important to me to see how every team played. I usually hated falls because it meant the start of a new school year, but football has been the one upside,the fact that all 32 teams start from scratch and now all get the chance for the Lombardi Trophy.I don’t think it’s the game itself, I mean despite some minor rule changes,the simple concept is all there.Is it the company itself? Roger Goodell, the owner of the NFL may be the man to blame for all this. Roger Goodell was chosen as commissioner in the summer of 2006 after the retirement of Paul Tagliabue. He had had a simple promise he made to the owners and the NFLPA(NFL player’s association) was that he would protect the integrity of the game and the player’s safety.Despite those promises in the last 10 years, it seems Roger only has concern of him and his business than anybody’s safety.
The integrity of the game is clearly not what anybody envisioned. The NFL has been being criticized for hiring and keeping criminals on the field. One of the cases is with Micheal Vick after in 2007 he was arrested for his involvement in dogfighting. He had spent two years in prison for it and in 2009, Vick announced he would be making a comeback to the NFL. Obviously,controversy ensued after the announcement from many dog lovers and animal rights activists across america. The NFL didn’t care,when they heard about the comeback of one of their most entertaining players,they smelt a profit. That’s exactly what happened as Vick had been given the keys to the starting job of the Phildephea Eagles in the 2010 season. Vick turned himself around into a MVP candidate while most his games had earned the highest ratings in the season. It was exactly what the NFL hoped for. They don’t care about the man’s actions they care about the the talent and if that talent can make them money.why should they, Goodell has turned a 6 billion dollar company in 2006 to a 14 billion in 2016 and a goal of 25 billion in 2027.If it had been some unknown lineman on the Jacksonville Jaguars who had to spent time in prison for animal cruelty, no way he gets reinstated back to play.It’s total hyprocisy by the league. Many fans of the game say that what players do off the field should not matter. But highly disagree, it’s as if they don’t understand millions of kids in america actually aspire to be these people. How could we have respect for a league that doesn’t care about just animals but human beings.
What about when the NFL continually denied that former players in the league diagnosed with CTE had nothing linked to them playing football. That is honestly awful, it’s the most dangerous thing I’ve heard a business do. Like I said millions of kids aspire to be these athletes and they aren’t being told about the life risks of the game? That’s insane and you may say well there’s plenty of players who’ve walked away fine but there’s a lot more who have not. Some have have had brain damage, memory loss or damage necks. Some guys can’t even walk. How can we trust a league that cares more about teams following strict cleat rules than teams following concussion protocol. Junior Seau, former All-pro linebacker,was found dead at his Southern California on May 2, 2012 with a himself-inflicted gunshot wound on his chest. His brain was donated to science and they later he had severe brain damage. Obviously,it was linked all to football. According to a former teammate when he was on the early 90’s Chargers team, Seau had sustained more than 1,500 ‘Grade 1’ concussions during his nearly twenty year playing career. His death had sparked a lot more of the criticism from the mainstream media that wasn’t being said before. It was obvious Seau wasn’t protected by the league. This lead to an overwhelming amount of lawsuits against the NFL, players stating that the NFL never cared about their well being. Players who can’t afford medicine for the damage that was sustained from their playing careers.
Goodell has been continuously criticized for his relationship with the owners instead of his players. The owners see him as sort of their ‘human shield’ as he takes the blame instead of these greedy owners who force taxpayer dollars to pay for their billion dollar stadiums. Another laughable moment by Goodell is the Deflategate debacle. How awful was that? It showed the true stubbornness of the commissioner. Brady was suspended for 4-games at the start of the 2016 season because it was obvious the NFL had it out for him. They treated their star player of the league so poorly if a barely deflated football in a AFC championship game in which they blew out the Indianapolis Colts 45–0. Goodell for some strange reason asked the Brady to hand over his phone and Brady proceeded to smashing it into little bits and pieces. Despite evidence proving the Patriots and Tom Brady had done no wrongdoing,Brady being allowed to play the whole 2015 season,and an attorney on the NFL team saying they had no actual plan(!), Goodell pushed the ongoing negotiation for over a year and a half and didn’t stop until he saw Brady off the field. Brady,who had continuously pushed for an appeal,finally gave up and accepted that his boss was in no way ever going to admit he was wrong.
Another boiling point between the NFL and it’s players was the lockout of the 2011 season. After the owners and players failed to agree on a collective bargaining, the owners looked players out of team facilities and shut down all league operations. This lead to an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL from it star players such as Tom Brady, Goodell’s Good buddy’ Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning. The lockout was so long going that it went over mini camps which meant rookies drafted that year haven’t even met there teammates and coaches. It ended in the summer,right at the start of summer training camps, which I think was the NFL panicing of the fact they may lose billions for not doing a whole 16 game season. It was the seeds to what started to the downfall of Goodells relationship with his players.
Bottom line, I think Goodell is bad for football. The way they run league is just awful. The final kicker is how they have handled the domestic abuse violence with their players. It gained national attention when running back Ray Rice was arrested at a casino for hitting his wife.For some reason,this wasn’t bad enough so Goodell handed him a 2-game suspenion. In the first weeks of the 2014 season, TMZ leaked a security video from the casino showing Rice knocking out his wife and dragging her unconscious body. Absolutely mishandling from the league,which would continue in 2015 with Greg Hardy and Johnny Manziel and in 2016 with Josh Brown. It’s so great the league supports women for one month in October.
