Before you can evaluate anyone’s job performance, it’s important to have a proper understanding of exactly what that job really entails. That’s true for every just out of school, overeager, entry level office worker in America. And it’s also true of Roger Goodell.
Because sure, officially, Goodell’s title is clear and unambiguous: Commissioner of the National Football League. But the reality is, any evaluation of Goodell involves first determining exactly what his role really is. Then, and only then, can we render a verdict on how well he’s performed his duties.
If you believe, as Goodell apparently does, that his most important responsibility is “protecting the shield”, it’s hard not to feel that as he approaches a decade on the job, the Commissioner continues to fall short. After all, from a public relations perspective, 2015 was not exactly the season when the NFL reclaimed the narrative. Instead, it was another year of concussions, and CTE, and a major motion picture that brought the league’s nightmare to a new level of awareness. It saw current players walk away from the game, and older ones open up about the toll it took on their body and mind. It reinforced, once again, that the league can make an absolute mess out of its own discipline, be it the serious matter of domestic violence or a decidedly preposterous multi-million dollar probe into the Ideal Gas Law. And it raised new questions about the quality of the on-field product itself, as short weeks, frequent injuries and doubts about the depth of the talent pool caused many to wonder if the game was becoming less of an aesthetic achievement and more of a joyless slog.
So sure, if you think that his job is to manage crisis, bolster the brand, and generate happy headlines, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Roger Goodell had yet another Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year. But then you see the ratings continuing to rise, television rights fees still growing, business absolutely booming, and the league about to make a triumphant return to the second biggest media market in the country, and you realize something quite profound.
Roger Goodell’s job isn’t to “protect the shield”. It’s to be the shield. And he’s doing one hell of a job.
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Friday was Goodell’s “State of the League” press conference, one of those delightful occasions when we’re reminded that the NFL sees itself as every bit as important, and powerful, as a small nation. Unsurprisingly, the Commissioner fielded questions on just about all of these topics, that have so frequently proved a thorn in the side of a league that just wants the focus to be on film study, and blitz pickup, and the awesome power of the gridiron in forging discipline for America’s youth. In one way at least, Goodell does have plenty in common with a head of state, because his press availabilities are so infrequent as to become highly anticipated, a rare chance for him to be peppered with the problems that have dominated the news cycle.
And Goodell was ready, of course, to parry away the expected queries.
Can San Diego and Oakland keep their teams? “We’re working very hard with not only the teams but the communities to find a solution that works for everybody.” (Translation: We’ll see who gives us the best offer.)
What is the league doing about brain injuries? “The concussion issue is something we’ve been focused on for several decades. We learn more from science.” (Science that, as we learned last week, the NFL is still using its money and power to shape.)
Is football truly safe for teens and preteen children? “It’s one of the reasons why we’ve invested so aggressively in USA Football and our Heads Up Football program.” (Never mind that serious questions exist about the efficacy of ‘Heads Up Football’, not to mention how quickly and easily one can become “certified” in the techniques.)
Paying cheerleaders? “These are employees of each club.” In game discipline? “That’s a Competition Committee Matter.” Medical Marijuana? “We’ll continue to be in touch with our medical personnel.” Daily Fantasy? “I don’t make that determination… We are obviously going to follow the law.”
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Goodell seemed to bat every question away, to lawyers, to doctors, to committees, to people that weren’t him. This hardly makes him unique of course, and in fact is reminiscent of just about every public authority figure in our country. Furthermore, given the utter catastrophes that have resulted whenever Goodell has taken unilateral action, from Bountygate to Ray Rice to the Tom Brady and John Jastremski Cell Phone Follies, it’s probably not the worst thing to see the Commish defer to someone else’s judgement.
Still, the general tenor of the press conference was one of stalling, of hedging, of simply moving things along. One of the few matters that Roger Goodell actually delivered a genuine, meaningful, honest-to-goodness opinion on? The Pro Bowl! “I was disappointed in what I saw on Sunday,” explained the Commissioner, “It is not the kind of game that I think we want to continue to have in its current format based on what we saw last week.”
So there you have it. An official acknowledgement, on the record, from the head of the National Football League, that the Pro Bowl is kind of horrible. But if you’re looking for anything even slightly more substantive, or meaningful, you’re just going to have to keep waiting.
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There was one other moment, from Friday’s presser, that garnered plenty of attention.
“There’s risks in life,” said Goodell, in a remarkably clumsy attempt to rationalize away the health concerns inherent to the game of football, “There’s risks to sitting on the couch.”
You might think that equating the dangers of a ferocious, collision based, high impact sport, one that can leave lasting impact on brain function, and that, as was noted in the preceding question itself, was responsible for the death of seven high school players this season, that comparing the perils of such a game with the act of kicking back on the Barcalounger might be a little obtuse, tone-deaf, or, dare we say, ridiculous. You would hardly be alone.
Roger Goodell thinks most of those Super Bowl greats got their limp from getting off the couch.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) February 7, 2016
No quote made me angrier than Roger Goodell dismissing football violence with, "Hey, you can get hurt sitting on the couch." #arrogant
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) February 7, 2016
Goodell: "There's risk in life. There's risk in sitting on the couch."
What the hell kind of couch does he own?
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) February 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/BrianMFloyd/status/695724701700775936
But in a sense, these tweets, and dozens more just like them, demonstrate that the Commissioner is doing his job just brilliantly, because that job, simply stated, is to absorb our mockery, and keep coming back for more. Roger Goodell exists to suffer the media’s slings and arrows, so that the 32 ludicrously wealthy individuals who employ him don’t have to. He’s an easy target, sure, and also a durable one, a punching bag with which the National Football League can blunt all the serious questions about its dangers, its decision making, and its treatment of players, employees, and fans.
Goodell doesn’t actually need to “fix” the game, not in the short term at least. Sure, a few more might follow the example of Chris Borland and step away, but as long as there are millions of dollars to be made, there will be plenty of others willing to put their bodies on the line and take their place. And he doesn’t have to “sell” the game either. No, America has made it quite clear that football continues to sell itself, with the game’s unique mixture of beauty and brutality continuing to dominate America’s sporting landscape. Sorry Albert Brooks, but the NFL is no longer a corporation that owns a day of the week.
They now own three.
Roger Goodell has one job, and one job only. That’s to keep the NFL’s gravy train rolling. To this point, no scandal, no uproar, no outrage, has done anything to change the fact that our appetite for football is insatiable. Sunday was the 50th edition of the Super Bowl, our nation’s annual ode to excess, and you may have found the game slow, and dull, and uninspiring. But you still watched it, and in the end, there was Goodell, center stage, presenting the Lombardi Trophy. He’s not the sharpest, the savviest, or the most popular man in sports. Far from it.
But he’s still there, taking it all on the chin, while the football freight train continues to roll right along. “Protect the shield”? Ha. The NFL doesn’t need a bodyguard. It needs an occasional diversion.
And Roger Goodell is excellent at playing that part.
