NOT THAT HE AND THE OWNERS CARE, BUT ROGER GOODELL FAILED MISERABLY
With the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, we hoped the NFL commissioner would explain gambling but watched him limit an audience to 127 media members, saying nothing about scandals and loving his Swiftie life
The news came with a knock on his hotel door. “Fortunately,” said Roger Goodell, “I’d just put my pants on.” Seems he finally won a close election as the NFL’s next commissioner, on the fifth ballot, and there to tell him in Chicago was Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney. Today, we should laugh at the idea of Goodell in boxer shorts.
Because almost 18 years later, after signing a new contract for more than $200 million, the league boss is the public protector of the 32 owners who pay him. He safeguards those who could be banished or at least reprimanded — Jim Irsay, Bob Kraft, Jerry Jones, Stephen Ross, Jimmy Haslam and Michael Bidwill — and only reacts when the majority want to exile Daniel Snyder. And he uses Opening Night at the Super Bowl, in Las Vegas, to allow only 127 reporters inside the Raiders’ locker room when he slighted a disturbing issue that bastardizes the sport’s integrity.
Gambling? This should have been his day of reckoning.
Betting? We wanted him to discuss a national onslaught after he called it taboo during the first dozen years of his tenure — such as this Sunday night, when 67.8 million adults will bet $23.1 billion.
Wagering? Imagine who said this in 2012: “If gambling is permitted freely on sporting events, normal incidents of the game such as bad snaps, dropped passes, turnovers, penalties, and play calling inevitably will fuel speculation, distrust and accusations of point-shaving or game-fixing.”
That would be Goodell, and when the comment was read inside the room, a loud noise suddenly crashed through the premises. Was this someone’s way of alerting him to pull a monstrous U-turn in his answer? He already has enabled the worst, of course, cutting those dirty deals with sportsbook partners DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars Entertainment and letting them run grotesque ads during games. Not only does the NFL capitalize on gambling in 38 states and the nation’s capital, Goodell and the owners have turned the forbidden into the favorable to make more billions.
How does he explain the hypocrisy? Why was he speaking Monday, at a time when reporters were preparing to visit the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium? Was Goodell making a farce of the media business, the same way he has convinced ESPN and other network partners to quell all hard news about a $22-billion-a-year enterprise? Later, the league had an 11-year-old reporter dominate televised interviews with players. A few of the 127 reporters worked nonetheless.
“While people can speculate and people can have perceptions, we have to hold that standard as high as we possibly can,” Goodell said. “I haven’t heard an awful lot of it, but you do hear it. There are people that say those things, whether they’re irresponsible or not. I think we’ve proven it in the way we’ve enforced those rules.”
Proven what? As far as we know, in the gambling phase, the NFL has disciplined 13 players and fired 25 league and team personnel staffers. We’d be fools to think corruption is on a low plane only six years after the Supreme Court allowed leagues to ramble on. “We take this incredibly seriously,” Goodell said. “We understand the risk. We did not make the decision. Ultimately, the decision was a decision by the Supreme Court. They legalized sports betting. We have to adapt. We have to embrace it. We have been cautious. We have been very thoughtful, I think, in our approach. But we know the risk and protecting the integrity is No. 1, and making sure that our fans understand what they see out there does not have any undue influence.”
The league had to adapt? At gunpoint? From prohibiting a practice before openly welcoming it? All because of the Supreme Court? “The harm is potentially to the game itself,” Goodell said. “We want to make sure it doesn’t harm the game. And so we spend a lot of time focusing on that: educating, making sure all of our personnel are aware of our gambling policies in this case or any other policy that can affect the integrity of our game. Ultimately, that’s our primary job. If (you're) betting on the NFL, you're terminated automatically. That's it.”
The days of Paul Hornung and Alex Karras, suspended for the 1963 season after gambling violations, wouldn’t happen today. If superstars feel the need to bet despite spectacular paychecks, we’d never hear about it. The public is blase if lowly known players are busted, even an occasional good receiver like Calvin Ridley. But if the crisis ever crashed and involved top quarterbacks, the league would be slaughtered. Want to know how Goodell is bunkered now? A story in ProFootballTalk — whose author, Mike Florio, wasn’t invited to join the 127 — said the league must start “a ground war” to bash reporters writing about concussions. The number was up for the fourth straight regular season, but Goodell is trying to bash independent media.
“We want reporting that’s going to be accurate and is based on fact,” he said, not denying his emailed words. “We want them to understand where we are, how we’re making the game safer, the things that we’re doing … taking techniques out of the game, modifying rules, making sure that we’re adding extra protections in so we can identify when players are injured. People didn’t think we could change our culture and our players are now raising their hands when they think they have a concussion potentially or when they see somebody else. Those are all positives that have been made to make things safer for our players.”
So while serious media members deal with administrative torment, Goodell said the league will play its first Brazil game on Sept. 6. That would be a Friday night, when high-school football is underway. What a way to support youth development? “We are just incredibly enthusiastic about our growth on a global basis," said the boss, already pleased with his European impact. "We are convinced we can be a global sport in the near future.”
And Swifties? Roger and his family are among them. What about the political conspiracy chatter? “Listen, I think anybody in this society, when they're in a public position, are going to be subject to criticism. The idea that this was in a script, or this was pre-planned, it's nonsense. It's, frankly, not even worth talking about,” he said of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. “We see two people that are really happy together, having fun together, I think that's wonderful and I wish them well. They're both wonderful people. The fact that they're both involved with football in some fashion, through their relationship, that's great. We welcome that.”
Sure, he does. Add several more million to the Sunday viewership total. Also not appearing among the 127 was the Athletic’s Jim Trotter, who is suing the league for losing his job after questioning the lack of Black newsroom employees. I’d prefer Trotter use his column to attack the league, but his legal action has removed him from his best work covering pro football. Aren’t readers losing when he’ll fall to the NFL lawyers? Said Goodell to a question: “Well, I disagree completely that there hasn’t been any change. I’m happy to get your data and share it with our people and make sure that we get an answer for you. I don’t have all the data. I will tell you (for) the first time, 51 percent of our employees across the league, across the network, across all of our media platforms, not including players, are either people of color or women. First time ever. So progress is being made. And there are areas where we still need to work and we still need to improve, whether it’s offensive assistants or maybe people within our media newsroom. We will continue to do that, and make significant progress, as we have.”
It was painful, listening to his intentional flagrancy, all in the name of his $200 million. At least the owners have hired nine head coaches of color, a positive, and at least he won’t stream a Super Bowl for money. But the strain of poor officiating?
“The level of scrutiny is at the highest I’ve ever seen it,” Goodell said. “And that’s part of our popularity. I understand that. It’s part of the technology. (TV broadcasts) do such a great job that you see more than you could ever see in officiating. The game is faster. I think our officials do a great job. They are superior. But, at the end of the day, no one’s perfect. We have to continue to try to get better. I think they’re doing an incredible job.”
And if the 49ers are complaining about a soggy practice field at UNLV? They’re soft. “It is well within our testing standards,” Roger Goodell said. “It is something that we think — all our experts, our neutral field inspectors — and have all said, unanimously, that it’s a playable field.”
Next time, someone will bring a polygraph test. He can remain in his boxer shorts.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.