The NFL Has Plenty Of Things That Need Fixed
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Jerad Shaw-
What goes up must eventually come down.
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell should pay close attention to that saying.
While everything looks like rainbow and butterflies with the current state of the NFL, change is coming. This time, there might not be a fantasy football league, or a red zone channel to save it.
For those that say it can’t happen, just take a short trip down memory lane with me. In the middle to late 1990s, baseball’s popularity skyrocketed due to a home run chase, aided by steroids. While most people believe that baseball’s crackdown on PEDs benefited the game, it surely didn’t benefit the popularity.
Chicks dig the long ball, but so does a 30-year-old Cubs fan. As baseball slowly drags me back, football is starting to drift away.
This week, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was suspended two games after an alleged assault on his then-fiancée in an Atlantic City hotel room. Security cameras capture Rice carrying his fiancé off of an elevator, unconscious. Through the courts, Rice was able to cop a plea deal, and will likely face no jail time. As far as his professional career, he will sit two games and lose a total of three games worth of paychecks.
Mr. Goodell, you sir put your no nonsense discipline on the forefront on this one. For years, it was preached in the front office that off-the-field actions detrimental to the league would be met with a swift hand. Goodell completely dropped the ball in the handling of this situation. In no way, shape, or form is it OK to hit a woman, and the NFL did nothing to discourage these actions by their lenient punishment.
Goodell sure has his pen ready for Josh Gordon though.
Gordon tested positive for marijuana shortly after the 2013-2014 football season. This is Gordon’s second positive test after failing for having codeine in his system last year. It is rumored that Goodell will decide if Gordon will sit out an entire NFL season due to the second failed test.
Far be it from me to justify the use of any illegal drugs, but a year for the use of a plant, comparable to an alleged domestic violence incident will surely raise eye brows.
Could it be possible that Mr. Goodell has his hands full in another area? Could it be that he’s spending his time trying to keep a disaster of fallout from past players use of pain killers, something that could tarnish and ruin the product of the NFL much like steroids did to the game of baseball?
In May, over 500 former players filed a lawsuit in response to past use of narcotic pain killers. Both shots and pills were allegedly given to players in order to deal with pain and keep players on the field. Where there is smoke, there inevitably is fire. The Drug Enforcement Administration has now begun an investigation into the misuse of medication by teams’ training staff and doctors.
I’m sure you remember Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, and Roger Clemens testifying in front of congress about steroids. How far are we from Joe Montana and Howie Long having to do the same thing?
For anyone that says there is no such thing as bad press, the NFL is going to put that to the test in the upcoming months.[[In-content Ad]]
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What goes up must eventually come down.
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell should pay close attention to that saying.
While everything looks like rainbow and butterflies with the current state of the NFL, change is coming. This time, there might not be a fantasy football league, or a red zone channel to save it.
For those that say it can’t happen, just take a short trip down memory lane with me. In the middle to late 1990s, baseball’s popularity skyrocketed due to a home run chase, aided by steroids. While most people believe that baseball’s crackdown on PEDs benefited the game, it surely didn’t benefit the popularity.
Chicks dig the long ball, but so does a 30-year-old Cubs fan. As baseball slowly drags me back, football is starting to drift away.
This week, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was suspended two games after an alleged assault on his then-fiancée in an Atlantic City hotel room. Security cameras capture Rice carrying his fiancé off of an elevator, unconscious. Through the courts, Rice was able to cop a plea deal, and will likely face no jail time. As far as his professional career, he will sit two games and lose a total of three games worth of paychecks.
Mr. Goodell, you sir put your no nonsense discipline on the forefront on this one. For years, it was preached in the front office that off-the-field actions detrimental to the league would be met with a swift hand. Goodell completely dropped the ball in the handling of this situation. In no way, shape, or form is it OK to hit a woman, and the NFL did nothing to discourage these actions by their lenient punishment.
Goodell sure has his pen ready for Josh Gordon though.
Gordon tested positive for marijuana shortly after the 2013-2014 football season. This is Gordon’s second positive test after failing for having codeine in his system last year. It is rumored that Goodell will decide if Gordon will sit out an entire NFL season due to the second failed test.
Far be it from me to justify the use of any illegal drugs, but a year for the use of a plant, comparable to an alleged domestic violence incident will surely raise eye brows.
Could it be possible that Mr. Goodell has his hands full in another area? Could it be that he’s spending his time trying to keep a disaster of fallout from past players use of pain killers, something that could tarnish and ruin the product of the NFL much like steroids did to the game of baseball?
In May, over 500 former players filed a lawsuit in response to past use of narcotic pain killers. Both shots and pills were allegedly given to players in order to deal with pain and keep players on the field. Where there is smoke, there inevitably is fire. The Drug Enforcement Administration has now begun an investigation into the misuse of medication by teams’ training staff and doctors.
I’m sure you remember Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, and Roger Clemens testifying in front of congress about steroids. How far are we from Joe Montana and Howie Long having to do the same thing?
For anyone that says there is no such thing as bad press, the NFL is going to put that to the test in the upcoming months.[[In-content Ad]]
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