Posted on 01/04/2011 6:06:32 PM PST by jerod
A response to Roger Goodell and his letter to NFL fans.
First off, you should face the facts Mr. Goodell. As the latest commissionaire of the NFL since 2006 you have been a miserable and complete flop.
Your foolish 'innovations' have been fodder for jokes and ridicule amongst many of the 'true' fans of the NFL. The ones who watch every week, and go to every game they can. The ones who have been watching for years and have seen the NFL go from empty stadiums to full houses and extrodinary TV ratings. Accomplishments that have nothing to do with you.
Your innovations???
A square with a 'C' and stars on Captain's jersey's - Laughable at best and ignored by many teams and the best coach in the NFL today - Bill Belichick. True fans do not require a 'C' to figure out who the captains are. LOL
Games in merry old England and even more laughable, a Super Bowl in England? You are truly a fool Roger. Nobody in England cares, understands or even pays very much attention to the NFL, just as many true NFL fans don't pay attention to soccer.
The Pro-Bowl before the Super Bowl - ha ha ha
A 'conduct' policy that applies to Big Ben, but doesn't apply to Burp Favra and Rex Ryan and the Jets in general... An organization you used to work for and your favorite team growing up in New York.
Spy-gate... Even CNN-SI's Peter King can conclude that the Patriots have had a better winning percentage since that contrived scandal, than they did before it. So exactly how did the side-line tapes help them? Your association with New York and the Jets once again does not serve you well here. Bill Belichick will some day right a book and your name will surely garner a somewhat unflattering chapter, for sure.
And last but not least - an 18 game regular season??? Your lame reasoning 'fans have complained about the pre-season'-- ??? WTF!!! - I've been watching the NFL since the 1970's and not once have I ever heard anybody complain about the pre-season. The pre-season is what it is - a pre-season.
So you and many of your bosses (I'm assuming that's the NFL owners, and not the wise-guys in Jersey and casino owners in Vegas) want to add two more regular season games.
Who benefits from such a move?
The NFL is one of the most bet on sports in existence as this excerpt from a June 16th 2009 article by Hannah Karp from the WSJ clearly illustrates..."The NFL says its surveys show that "a very small percentage" of the more than 100 million people who watch the NFL on TV bet on the games -- but there is no question that the NFL is the nation's most popular gambling sport. Bettors wagered $81.5 million in Nevada's sports books on this year's Super Bowl -- a sum that's approached $100 million in previous years, according to the Nevada Gaming Commission. A total of $1.1 billion was wagered on football, both college and pro, in Nevada over the 12 months ending in April 30 (not including parlay bets), nearly three times the amount wagered on basketball. Analysts estimate that tens of billions more are wagered on the NFL at offshore casinos. (Internet betting is illegal in the U.S., although individual bettors are rarely prosecuted.)
The NFL's relationship with gambling is a long one. Its founding fathers included Tim Mara, a legal bookmaker from New York whose grandson, John, is a current owner of the New York Giants; Art Rooney, who bought the Pittsburgh Steelers with his gambling winnings and whose family still owns racetracks; and William Barron Hilton, who led Hilton Hotels Corp. into the gambling business several years after selling his controlling interest in the San Diego Chargers in 1966. (The Las Vegas Hilton is now home to the country's largest sports book.)"
So who wants the 18 game schedule???
The players working longer and earning the same amount of money?; The fans watching two more useless games at the end of a season which has already taken it's toll on many of their favorite players?; Or the gambling and crime syndicates?
If you picked the later, you chose correctly. Regular season games see 10 to 15 times more betting action than that of a meaningless 'pre-season' game.
You're not fooling anybody Roger Goodell. I just hope the 'clean' owners see you for who you are - a fool - and show you the door before you do any more damage to what was and is one of the best sports ever played.
My husband wants to make a T-shirt that says: It’s the NFL Roger, not the OBGYN!
This is the first season where I haven’t watched a game. This guy has destroyed the league. This is the one time I hope labor wins one.
I don’t care for Goodell’s arbitrary conduct policy, but his emphasis on minimizing head injuries is quite correct.
This jerk Goodell caved to Shapton when Rush Limbaugh was in an ownership group. Frankly, I detest Goodell and his pansy-fication of the NFL. Worst Commish in my experience.
Pansy-fication indeed. Here is some alarming news Roger: Football is a violent sport. Players use themselves as projectiles because they are projectiles. If you don’t want them doing that, bring back leather helmets.
I heard my adult son and his friends discussing the Chickification of the US...they used the V word.
I think the Commish is one of those... :0)
I agree. The players take enough risk as it is in current 16 game schedule. For them to play 18 games is pushing it so I’ll side with labor on this one.
Come to think of it, neither have I! Just last night, I was perusing the DirecTV guide and wondered who was playing on MNF. LOL, I discovered no game - the season is over, and I hadn't watched any games at all. I'd seen parts of games here and there, but . . . no interest.
I see the Seahawks won their division with a 7-9 record. How laughable, a 7-9 record wins your division! BTW, what happened to them, they used to be a good team?
“Even CNN-SI’s Peter King can conclude that the Patriots have had a better winning percentage since that contrived scandal, than they did before it. So exactly how did the side-line tapes help them?”
3 superbowl trophies before spygate, 0 after. Not that I’m a fan of Goodell.
Varlet?
“I see the Seahawks won their division with a 7-9 record. How laughable, a 7-9 record wins your division!”
It would be great if Seattle could win it all! The only thing better would be if their record was 6-10, that way they could be champs with a losing record! That would be a hoot!
I think the league desperately needs to address official bias in the games. Bad calls are one thing, and fairly obvious. Even more prevalent and insidious are the non-calls where officials obviously "look the other way" and refuse to throw a flag. The league cannot deny it happens in this age of HD DVRs. We can "review the tape" just as well as they can. They need to start fining, suspending, and firing officials that demonstrate this kind of bias.
You have obviouly never been a season ticket holder required to pay full price for the exhibition games in order to maintain your season tickets.
Other attrocities by the No Fun League aka Politically Correct League.
Latino Appreciation Month
Making the players and coaches wear pink in support of breast cancer awareness, but ofcourse anything like support of prostate cancer or non-female specific issues won’t be included because that doesn’t pander to women.
The continued push to force women down our throats as sideline reporters and into the locker rooms and then acting all outraged when a bunch of males act like males around them.
The continuous rule modifications to protect qbs from any type of contact by the defense. All so their advertising golden childs don’t get injuried. Aka the don’t get Tom Brady’s silky hair messed up rule.
Let’s face it, the league panders to fans who like to see
TOUCHDOWNS!...So basically it is pitch and catch, dink and
dunk...
i mean you can’t touch a receiver after he has gone 5 yards pass the
line of scrimmage....so they get a tall 6’6” guy whose hands
can get to about 11-12 feet up when he jumps and you toss
the ball up there...and you have a 10 yard gain...
Get rid of that rule, make it “bump and run” again..make the
receiver earn his catch...and get rid of the “in the grasp”
rule. Make the quarterback willing to go down fast, or
design plays to keep the quaterback out of the reach of
those incredibly speedy defensive players.
No substitutions for at least 4 consecutive plays is another
rule that should be made....enuf of this “nickel” defense and
“dime” package...let those slobs(i say this warmly) run
around a bit...maybe if they exercised out there instead of
playing Sumo versus El Toro they wouldn’t die so young.
Just my 2 cents, er billion dollars needed for a franchise....
Yes... But two Super Bowl appearances if you include this year. (I already have obviously)
My idea of the perfect NFL game features any combination of the Giants, Bears, Packers, or Vikings.
Playing in sleet, in December.
Final score: 7-6.
Ans Seattle couldn’t have done it without the other teams in their division conveniently folding, en masse.
But I will give the Seahawks this - that game last Sunday, they played really good. So now, who knows?
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