Maybe Roger Goodell is delusional.
Maybe he’s a liar. Maybe he’s just unaware.
Or, maybe, the NFL Commissioner simply doesn’t care about how displeased the players, fans, media and everyone else is with how he runs his league.
The latter seems the most befitting answer. And why should he care? He’s paid more than $30 million a year to do what league owners say, not to keep the public “happy.”
But there’s a difference between being apathetic toward public perception and fabricating some rosy image of the NFL.
Goodell made his annual State of the League Address on Wednesday and discussed some of the NFL’s prominent issues of the 2018-19 season. Among those mentioned was the controversial missed pass interference call during the Saints-Rams NFC Championship game and the Colin Kaepernick collusion case.
Then he added a statement that was, to say the least, utterly perplexing.
“I think this season has demonstrated that there’s never been a better time to be a part of the NFL,” Goodell said. “As a fan, as a player, as a team and as a partner.”
There is absolutely no way this season could have demonstrated that.
Let’s think about it.
“As a fan.”
The fans who can expect to pay anywhere from $4,600 to $16,000 for a ticket to this year’s Super Bowl? That’s compared to an average of $1,800 ten years ago and $530 15 years ago.
These are the same fans who are now begging the league to reconsider the way it handles instant replay after far too many “refs are only human” excuse-laced missed calls this season.
New Orleans Saints diehards and players may still want a word with you, Mr. Goodell.
“As a player.”
Surely he can’t be referring to the players who still don’t have guaranteed contracts. Or the ones who have filed thousands of concussion-related lawsuits against the league because they’ve either sustained long-term injuries or they’re tired of watching their peers and former teammates die.
Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid might be a player who would disagree, after he read a note posted to his locker on Dec. 17 requesting that he proceed to the facility drug testing area. Reid took what he said was his seventh “random” test since signing with the team on Sept. 27.
I would mention Kaepernick’s opinion about being a part of the NFL this past season, but he doesn’t have one. Because he didn’t get a chance to play. And he probably won’t ever again get a chance to play.
“As a team.”
This can’t be right. It was just two weeks ago that referees ROBBED the Saints of a trip to the Super Bowl with that egregious no call.
Seven head coaches were fired by the end of the season, and five of them were African-American.
The Kansas City Chiefs released running back Kareem Hunt within days of a video surfacing of him kicking and shoving a woman at a Cleveland hotel, an incident that occurred 10 months before the team and the league took “noble” action.
Then there’s the Pittsburgh Steelers versus Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown.
And who knows what happened to teams like the Packers, the Jaguars and the Falcons, none of whom ended the regular season with an above-.500 record.
“As a partner. “
Like the broadcasters who get paid regardless of what NFL controversies arise? The owners who make billions off the backs of players who risk their health every Sunday to keep more money in their pockets than they’d ever spend in a lifetime?
Oh wait, never mind, that part sounds right.
The NFL is more profitable than ever and will make upward of tens of millions of tax-free dollars from this year’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams.
One thing about Goodell’s address was true, though. The league isn’t the same dumpster fire it was during the 2017 season, with the anthem-kneeling backlash, the Trump versus NFL players debacle and the decreased ratings.
But this is nowhere near a great time for the National Football League, at least not image-wise.
Perhaps Goodell should’ve gone with “at least it ain’t last year” in his address.
That statement would have been much more accurate.
Alanis Thames is the Online Sports Editor of the Alligator. Follow her on Twitter @alanisthames and contact her at athames@alligator.org
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made his annual State of the League Address on Wednesday. "I think this season has demonstrated that there’s never been a better time to be a part of the NFL,” he said. “As a fan, as a player, as a team and as a partner.”
