Home 2014 Season The Time for Roger Goodell to Go is Now

The Time for Roger Goodell to Go is Now

by Steeldad

After 10 plus days in seclusion National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke to the world today and following his press conference, ESPN’s Outside the Lines spoke back.

Normally in these pages I do not choose to cover anything but our Steelers but today has been unique. Today Roger Goodell took to the podium and we expected greatness. We expected a leader to truly lead and we expected a plan. We believed that Goodell had spent the last week deep in the bowels of the NFL Offices creating something that would make a better NFL.

What we received was more of the same. Goodell avoided questions with the agility of Devin Hester on a punt return. We thought for sure we would get one big mea culpa but instead we heard tiny apologies and a request for ‘more time.’ When asked if he should be allowed to keep his job he said “yes” because he had owned up to his mistakes.

While Goodell now faces an even bigger and more uncertain future (more on that in a minute), he does not shoulder all of the blame or guilt. The National Football League Players’ Association must also take a good hard look in the mirror because it is their members who have helped create much of the situation.

I found it incredibly asinine for Dante Stallworth to tweet his displeasure with Goodell considering his own personal issues that resulted in driving drunk and the death of a pedestrian. The entire NFLPA needs to decide how they can help with these issues as well. They can complain about Goodell all they want to but they need to clean up their acts as well.

It wasn’t long after Goodell’s press conference had ended when ESPN’s Outside the Lines released their investigation of the Ray Rice incident and cover-up. Yes, I said , “cover-up.”

The evidence is damaging to not only Goodell but also to Baltimore Ravens’ General Manager Ozzie Newsome and owner Steve Bisciotti. OTL is reporting that within hours of the Rice incident, the head of Ravens’ security was already seeing the elevator video. He was given it by a police officer who happened to be a Ravens’ fan.

The Ravens also pleaded to Goodell for leniency in the matter and it appears that Goodell acquiesced. Let us not forget that Roger Goodell grew up going to Baltimore Colts games as a child. He has spoken on more than one occasion about his love of the Colts and Orioles. While they haven’t been the Colts since the early 1980’s, the Ravens came around ten years later and you never take the fan out of the person.

It looks even worse for Goodell when you factor that in on top of everything else.

I encourage you to read the OTL report for yourself but I see no way Goodell should survive this. He has abused his power and he showed favoritism to one team ahead of all others. Some would even say he did this with the Patriots when he burned the tapes during the Spygate scandal but this goes farther. This is hometown team we are talking about here not to mention cases of abuse and assault.

The Ravens deserve harsh punishment as well. A loss of draft picks and heavy fines are likely coming. As a Steelers’ fan I sound biased towards both the Ravens and Goodell. Baltimore for obvious reasons and Goodell simply because of his treatment of Steelers’ players in the past.

While there are many sides that blame can be attributed to in this mess over the last several months, Roger Goodell has proven he cannot make the necessary decisions to remain in charge and should step down immediately.

Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteelDad and the website @SCBlitz. Check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/steelcityblitz and on Fancred.com. You can hear him weekly during the season on Trib-Live Radio Steelers Pre-Game.

photo courtesy mashable.com

 

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1 comment

Brad September 22, 2014 - 1:13 pm

I agree with everything you said, Goodell’s head should roll and the Ravens should be heavily penalized. I also don’t feel RIce should play another down in the NFL, but I’ve had those feelings about players in the past that committed crimes, it doesn’t mean it will happen.

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