In recent years, we’ve seen NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell mercilessly booed every single time he comes to the podium on NFL Draft night. Every bit of that booing and more is deserved, as he’s truly engaged in some deplorable acts in recent years.
Like our current President, Goodell was born on third base and thought he hit a triple, a self-defining trait that no doubt feeds the narcissism, solipsism and egocentrism in each man. Goodell is a U.S. Senator’s son who has failed upwards in life, and taken a product that was almost transcendent in its quality during the 1990s and early 2000s, and degenerated it into nearly unwatchable rubbish today.
Roger Goodell has ruined at best, destroyed at worst the National Football League by acting like a corporation disguised as a human being. Most of what’s wrong with the NFL these days stems from two basic core principles. First, Goodell has mandated corporate culture uber alles, which of course no culture at all, but instead homogeneity.
Corporatism means trying to reach as many consumers as possible at all times, and that entails never having an opinion on anything, let alone taking an actual stance on a legitimate issue. It requires consistently staying on brand, i.e. remaining vanilla no matter the situation. Think about every Tom Brady interview you’ve ever heard- that’s the essence of it.
The more one researches #TakeAKnee, Colin Kaepernick, the National Anthem protests and the #BlackLivesMatter movement for what this is all about, the more one sees how badly Goodell dropped the ball in handling this situation.
The NFL Commissioner has instead retreated to the patriotism of scoundrels, and therefore alienated one group on one side of these issues.
Amazingly, he’s also alienated a group on the polar opposite side of these issues. That’s pretty difficult to do- inspire boycotts from groups on each pole of an issue. It would be hard to bungle something so badly that you turn off both sides even if you tried.
That’s the macro-level manner in which the NFL Commish has failed. The second, on a micro level, is the way he’s over-tweaked the league through rules changes and an obsession with message control.
They have simply micro-managed their way to losing thousands and thousands of fans through over-regulating every kind of communication a player can make, and bizarre inconsistent rulings in the actual product itself.
What the hell is a catch anymore in the NFL? Does anyone even know? What are we even watching anymore- will that play we just witnessed be wiped out- for some bizarre, nonsensical rule?
That’s why this Sunday, during Super Bowl LII, root for the New England Patriots, and by doing so, root against Roger Goodell. Sure, you don’t like the Patriots, and I don’t blame you for that, I’m not saying you should like them. However, vs Roger Goodell, they are no doubt the better option.
It’s not ideal, but that’s just, unfortunately, a part of life some times. Goodell hates the Pats, he carries a long standing grudge with them. The Patriots leadership has their issues with the commish. This has all been over-covered already, you already know about the beef between the two sides.
To help you get through this Sophie’s Choice, I’ve enlisted the help of two Patriots fans superfans and elite writers. First, we have Patriots columnist and podcaster Thomas Murphy II, of sportsxmedia.com
He contributed very strongly to my essay on Chicago Now entitled “You can be pro Patriots and anti Trump, yes really, you actually can.”
You can follow Murphy on Twitter @Tmurph207.
We began our discussion on that topic by referencing Jack Hamilton’s essay in Slate entitled “Is it morally acceptable to root for the Patriots in the age of Trump.” Here’s an excerpt:
The league that Goodell represents is a cesspool for corporate oligarchy and the patriotism of scoundrels….Goodell issued a cursory defense of Kaepernick’s right to free expression that the commish carefully drowned out in dog whistles, including this incredible passage: “I support our players when they want to see change in society, and we don’t live in a perfect society. We live in an imperfect society. On the other hand, we believe very strongly in patriotism in the NFL. I personally believe very strongly in that.” Whatever “patriotism” is extolled in this passage is pretty disgusting.I’ve often said that rooting for the Patriots feels like rooting for the Joker in a Christopher Nolan Batman film—they’re psychotically single-minded, amoral, gallingly narcissistic, purveyors of opportunistic, meticulous chaos. But what if the Joker is right? What if Gotham is irredeemable and Batman is even worse? I’m just about done with the NFL and everything it stands for, and an increasingly large part of me hopes I’m too good to ever watch another professional football game after this one.
Hamilton pretty much summed up my thoughts and feelings on Roger Goodell and today’s NFL that he has not only let happen, but moved towards creating.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune corporation blogging community Chicago Now.
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