NFL Crime and Punishment: Roger’s Luggage

The NFL lockout is over. Well, at least in practical terms. Barring the return of Jesus Christ, World War III, or an alien assault, the 2011 season will proceed uninterrupted. Men everywhere,

and a few women, are sighing in relief. The sports fanatic churches have not been padlocked.

All of the backslapping has smeared over the fact that players simply don’t like Roger Goodell.

Just a few weeks ago, Pittsburgh’s James Harrison was sneering at the commissioner. Harrison called the boss a crook, a puppet, and a devil. I think there was more, but that’s plenty.

This idea of Goodell as a kind of ogre, portrayed by the players with more and more frequency, can’t be a new attitude. It’s been boiling under the surface. And there is a segment of fans and news consumers who don’t understand.

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Goodell came into the commish post as a kind of post-modern cowboy. He was going to whip these boys into shape–funnel them onto a better path under his eye. That has been the impression from here, anyway.

Remember that advice from old movies about prisons and tough schools: Just walk right up and deck the toughest guy in the place. Right off the bat.

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Here’s something else to remember. When the Patriots’ Spygate scandal splashed down, the tapes–the evidence–that were the basis of the whole case were destroyed, on Goodell’s order. No one seemed to mind much. The commish claimed that imposing penalties on Coach Belichick and getting rid of the video (all in a two-week span) was best. Never mind that the investigation was still in relative infancy.

Decisions like that one, made early in his tenure, told us what kind of leader and man he was. Most of us weren’t paying attention.

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Pacman Jones, a ne’er-do-well if you believe the media and the police reports, was Goodell’s first major public coup. He was going to make an example of this guy, who seemed to always have a police presence nearby.

In 2007, Jones was suspended for off-the-field actions, and eyebrows lifted everywhere. A lot of people were impressed with Goodell.

Joe Theismann wrote after the Jones decision, “I’ve always felt the suspensions and punishments for off-field issues weren’t severe enough. This will get everyone’s attention.”

Goodell is necessarily on the side of the owners, and he can’t be shamed for that. It is his job to lean that way, toward the paycheck-suppliers. But when you go to the big hammer too often, sooner or later that tool will fail you.

Theismann’s words were prescient: You can bet that the athletes who risk their bodies and longevity for a game see much more clearly now. And there will be major ripples across the National Football League.

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