With NFL mediation talks to resume this Thursday, I wanted to take a second to vent my frustrations with the commissioner.
I’m about a week late on this one, but why is Roger Goodell so adamant at this time about controlling the use of HGH in the league. With the reality of a cancelled season on the horizon, I feel that Goodell should be worried about actually playing the game.
But don’t get me wrong, I do believe the league should look out for its players safety, and banning the use of performance enhancing drugs will help players in the long run. The league has imposed strict concussion regulations in order to ensure its players will have better lives after the game, and banning HGH would have very similar results.
The problem is, it seems as though Goodell is losing the support of his players. Derrick Mason, who is receiving the only credit he will ever get in an article of mine, has come to bat for the players calling Goodell “a joke.” Mason is a well-respected member of the league, and has asked Goodell to keep his focus on ensuring there is a season, and not worrying about such trivial ideas in this dire time for the league.
Goodell’s attention deficit disorder over getting a new collective bargaining agreement in place seems to have taken its toll on some players, and on myself, and this latest tangent is what broke the camels back.
One hot button issue that Goodell has preached for his tenure as commissioner has been “globalizing” the game. This league pulls in 9 billion dollars a year, and he wants to expand to parts of the world that could not care less about the game. In my opinion, these once a year games in London serve no purpose. They take away a home game from a team; force both teams to travel an unnecessary distance for a regular season game, and do not draw much attention in general.
It’s not that I am selfish; I wish everyone in the world loved the game of football as I do, but I do not think that will happen. If anything, the world could adopt a tournament similar to the UEFA cup in football where each country had a different league and all the top teams could play for a world title every year.
Clearly I know that is not realistic, but why can Goodell not see that having teams in other countries that are affiliated with the NFL will not work either. For those that will say Canada has teams in other sports…… that is not the same thing.
Another issue I have with the Goodell regime is his goal to enforce the 18 game season. He preaches about the safety of players, but how would adding two games onto the country’s most violent sport be helping the players.
I have to exclude the MMA from that last statement that stuff is crazy here’s a link that many of you may like to watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfMMcXyJIl8
The 16 game season just makes more sense. It has nothing to do with that fact that all previously set records would fall, because records were made to be broken. I simply feel that if something isn’t broke, then you should not fix it. It really all boils down to money, which is why we may not have a season this year in the first place.
It seems as though commissioners in every league take the brunt of what the fans have to offer, I know everyone watches Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, get booed at center ice every time he hands over Lord Stanley’s cup. But I feel as though Goodell is asking for it. He wants to change the game we all love so much, and I’m willing to listen, but he wants to change the game for the worse.