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Roger Goodell has been the commissioner of the NFL since 2006. He’s worked for the league (or one of its teams, briefly) since he had an internship in 1982. He’ll turn 63 the Saturday after the Super Bowl. His family is wealthy beyond comprehension and will be for generations; he made $128 million for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons alone, according to the New York Times.
All of which means one thing: It is time for him to stand up to the owners, his bosses, and wrest control of the league from men who’ve grown so disconnectedly rich that they threaten to ruin the game that gives them so much.
Just last week we heard accusations from former Dolphins coach Brian Flores that he’d been discriminated against by his former team, as well as the Giants (who appeared to interview him after deciding to hire another coach, meaning the Flores meeting was just a way to fulfill the Rooney Rule obligations) and the Broncos. Of course, anyone paying attention to basic NFL news already knew the league doesn’t give Black coaches a fair shot, as our Mike D. Sykes wrote.
Then, Congress — Congress! — held hearings to explore the toxic workplace conditions within the Washington, uhh, Commanders organization and new, somehow more awful allegations made it out into the world. That’s the same workplace the NFL thoroughly investigated and then … relied on a verbally delivered report (gee, is not being able to even write anything down a red flag?) that led to unfathomably lame “punishments” for team owner Daniel Snyder. (Also, it turns out the NFL might not be able to share what it found in the investigation unless … wait for it … *Daniel Snyder,* the person they “investigated,” allows it to.)
You would have hardly known last week that the NFL is nearing its triumphant crescendo, the Super Bowl.
Now, I’m not naive enough to think that Roger Goodell sleeps poorly at night because he’s let racism fester on his watch. Or that he’s actually bothered by how rancid the once-proud Washington franchise has become. He’s proven over and over that he works for the owners and is here to wrench as much money as possible out of broadcast partners for them and then do everything he can to ensure they have to turn over as little of it as possible to their employees, the players.
That’s his job and he’s quite proficient at it.
His response to most controversies is to launch PR campaigns, or fund “independent experts” to investigate issues. He was part of the league’s refusal to admit how much damage concussions and other blows to the head cause, and is a part of its continued negligence when it comes to providing help for those who were left broken. Colin Kaepernick got blackballed on his watch.
His legacy, at this point, won’t be changed.
But I’m also not cynical enough to believe that there’s not some part of Roger Goodell, who famously wrote to all then-28 teams and the league office seeking employment as a college student, who doesn’t want his tenure to mean more. Who doesn’t, at the very least, want to waltz away (his predecessors, Paul Tagliabue and Pete Rozelle before him, left the job at age 66 and 63, respectively) having used guile or savvy or something to leave his own mark beyond “grew revenue.”
Maybe that’s why he took the interesting step of sending — on Saturday morning — a memo to teams that said, basically, “Well, you know, Brian Flores has a point.” This probably didn’t go over so well with men who are accustomed to winning or settling lawsuits by staying quiet, having the best-paid lawyers and standing firm that they have, of course, done nothing wrong.
But it was the right message from the commissioner. We’ll see if it continues.
Quick hits: Olympic history was made … Pro Bowl “highlights” … Joel Embiid, MVP? … and more.
— Kamila Valieva made some Olympic history with a quad jump to help ROC win gold in team figure skating.
— There wasn’t much tackling at the Pro Bowl. But we did get to see Stefon Diggs play defense against his brother Trevon!
— Is Joel Embiid heading toward winning MVP? Robert Zeglinski explores that idea.
— Check out the awesome photos from NASCAR’s Clash at the L.A. Coliseum.