With NFL in turmoil, Commish
Roger Goodell is not having an All-Pro year, but he’s now the $200 Million Man. The 2017 season has been a train wreck, the season from hell.
Rapidly declining television ratings. Concussions. CTE. Anthem protests. Players using their bodies as 260-pound missiles. Empty seats at stadiums. Goodell-Jerry Jones feud. How much would NFL owners have been willing to pay Goodell in his just signed five-year contract extension that can be worth up to $200 million if their league wasn’t imploding and he wasn’t the most controversial and unpopular commissioner in NFL history?
The shield has been tarnished, and for $200 million Goodell should be able to find some fixes. Players are outraged over his money, but then again, fans are outraged over the money players are making.
“Roger is not in this for the accolades,” said one insider, close to the inner workings of the NFL. “It’s not what he signed up for. It’s not what he works for. He cares a great deal about the brand. I know repairing the league’s image and bringing it back to where it was is very, very important to him. These owners are very difficult to keep together. The league needs someone to stand up to someone as powerful as Jerry Jones.”
But this is a league with major problems and the players are part of it.
Too many have no regard for each other’s safety. It’s sadly inevitable there’s going to be a death on the field. All these negligent players get — yes, we’re talking to you Rob Gronkowski — are one-game suspensions. The Steelers-Bengals game the other night was more of a street fight than a football game.
Jones doesn’t often get knocked down a notch, but he lost this battle to Goodell. Jones is incensed that Goodell suspended Zeke Elliott six games for domestic violence — he has two games to go, including Sunday vs. the Giants — even though the running back was not charged in the case.
The Cowboys are 1-3 without Elliott and his absence is potentially destroying their playoff chances. Jones tried to pump the brakes on Goodell getting a new contract and threatened a lawsuit by hiring high-powered attorney GETTY David Boies, who successfully represented the league during the 2011 lockout, but Jones didn’t get more than a handful of owners to back him up and backed off.
Goodell’s old contract was not due to expire until March of 2019, and usually the best time to negotiate is coming off a career year. Jones wanted to wait. Where was Goodell going? But the other owners want Goodell to guide them through the next