i agree with lonesome rhodes (weird because he hates me). the guy is scum. and ive been on the record for this for many years. my 1st clue came when he fined people a quarter million for not wearing the right uniform equipment. i dont have a link, but i saw this post 1 time of all the fines he dished out of over 50k and you wouldnt believe how many were stuff like wearing the wrong colored shoes to a game, especially when it came to chad ochocinco. and if you looked at his policy over his tenure, many of the punishments were unfounded. while a lot of them may have merit, there was no pre warning of the consequences. thus, many times he fined people whatever he wanted for whatever he wanted. to clarify, its like you eating a sandwich and when i found out that you made it and ate it, i said you cant do that and fined you for it despite nothing previously that said you couldnt eat it. as the years went on, he has also destroyed the reputation of the league. now, im all about safety and im a moderate liberal, but people can make their own choices. if you want to take hits and play in a league that is about pain and punishment, thats your perogative. dont make the game softer so you dont lose money because thats what its about. hes not concerned about players safety at all. trust me. look at the evidence. he didnt start making these player safety rules until all this news about concussions came out and former players were suing the sh*t out of the league. i do believe that the nfl has a responsibility to inform the players, but if you have head problems, they are a result of years of punishment to the head. it didnt start as soon as you started your pro career. thats why you need an institutional change rather than a league change. that starts at fundamental peewee football. not changing the way the game is played. if you play the game right, then you wont get hurt. its been around for 100+ years. the game has evolved specifically to make the players safer and better. hence why its still around and people are playing. but back to goodell, he has no idea what he is doing. and obviously, the botched bountygate case just goes back into my favor and only validates my premise over the past years that he is strictly about the money. no conclusive evidence was found and once again, he jumped to conclusions. but the difference is someone stood up to him and exposed him. the reason it took so long, especially now is because the players f*cked up and took the majority revenue in exchange for total control by goodell over then nfl rather than have an actual system where theres a sub committee rather than a "dictatorship".
@reynaldo- retard. i played football for 3 years. i had to stop because i had a history of headaches and had burnout and depression from sports. but when i played and did track, i sustained many broken bones, injuries and sprains. these athletes know what they get into. they just dont want to think about the later affects. trust me. as for goodell, please explain how this is the same guy who wants to expand the season to 18 games and mentioned expanding the playoffs to 8 teams. thus causing more injuries and concussions, which he so desperately wants to get rid of. he fines teams for protecting their product. the colts in 2010 got fined to protect peyton manning in meaningless games, yet he'll fine the guy millions who knocks him out for an illegal hit. i can go on, but i dont care enough to keep going so i digress. i'll let you win this one if you have a rebuttal, but im done writing. if you have to complain about something else i said, then you are just a mindless chimp who cant even comprehend common sense.
I try not to criticize people who's job descriptions I don't completely know. I suppose I could research everything he can/cannot do, but I just don't care enough.
So anyhow, while I don't necessarily like it, I understand that the NFL has to evolve. so the rule changes are whatever, and I don't hold him personally responsible for what he does in that regard.
I don't really care about the other stuff(bounty ate, for example) because I don't know how much he controls and how much the owners control.
I like him more than Tagliabue, because his name doesn't sound ridiculous.
I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed. He's had the good fortune of heading the NFL at the height of its popularity and he's definitely benefited from it. I'll never understand how a mouthpiece for the league owners is worth the $29,500,000 a year (as of 2011) that he's given (and do mean "given" rather than "earns").
In the past two seasons we've had a players lockout that affected the start of the 2011 season and an officials strike where scab refs made a mockery of the game for the first three weeks of the 2012 season. Goodell's hubris and the fans gullibility allowed both to occur.
Then you have to consider the way he botched the Bountygate Scandal and his selective enforcement of NFL rules as they pertain to fines and suspensions he's levied at various players.
Finally, he had a hand in the league's attempt to bully the Baltimore Orioles into changing the start time of their baseball game on September 5th to accommodate the defending NFL Champion Baltimore Ravens. Fortunately, for those of us sick of Goodell and his enormous ego, the Orioles refused.
I believe the success and popularity of the NFL is in spite of having Goodell as commissioner, not because of it. He's just a suck-up and a figurehead who happens to be in the right place at the right time.