NFL still playing us all for fools
ICEBERG? What iceberg? Full speed ahead!
At a time when the NFL should be issuing some acknowledgment that it plans to right the ship, if not an SOS, it sails on, ship of fools.
Roger Goodell never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity to restore order, sensibility, civility and some sport to the sport. His influence on the game is found in his firm but false declaration that “PSLs are good investments” and that professionals have their immodest, clownish dance skits, if not their playbooks, rehearsed and ready to perform, win or lose, enjoyed as football-natural “spontaneous fun.”
And now Goodell faces a band of mutinous team owners.
Last weekend, when the NFL could not afford to be seen leading with its gonenuts side, its games again were loaded with gone-nuts displays by college men: Cheap shots, head-shots, blindside shots, non-tackle tackles designed to disable, unsportsmanlike conduct and unnecessary roughness penalties, ejections, requisite post-play garbage-talk and hassles, all-about-me demonstrations and a group-participation brawl.
Many players have gathered to exploit the national anthem, to show the nation they’re righteous, socially concerned young men. The game begins and quickly they blow their covers by engaging in post-play violence and tribal warfare, often followed by tweeted threats and hateful put-downs.
And these scenes are fully indulged, often showcased as “highlights,” by the NFL’s TV networks and pandering announcers too frightened to say, “See that? That stinks!”
Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston, a rotten egg while at Florida State — a rotten-egg mill long before Winston was born — ignited a multiple player brawl by leaving the sideline to accost Saints defensive back Marshon Lattimore, who was then belted from behind at top speed by Bucs receiver Mike Evans.
Winston won the Heisman Trophy the year after Johnny Manziel won it. How we doin’, football?
In Jacksonville, Cincinnati WR A.J. Green responded to a post-play shove by DB Jalen Ramsey with his fists, further solidifying the Bengals’ annual appearance as a drunken mob armed with an ugly rumor.
And what did Goodell, not to mention the NFLPA, have to say about this latest round of “games”? The usual. Nothing. Nothing in public, as if we didn’t see more of what we can’t miss, although many claim to now miss everything as NFL viewing has fallen beneath their dignity.
This was another time for Goodell and NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith to holler, “Enough!” How can players be taken seriously as society scolds when moments later their antisocial behavior threatens to disable one another and destroy their wellpaying business?
Sunday night, all NBC’s Cris Collinsworth could muster about Dolphins defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh was: “He really is some player, and I know he catches a lot of heat because he makes so much money.”
He takes heat because, for $114 million for six years, he was signed despite a career loaded with penalties, fines and suspensions. And Suh continues to reinforce his rep as among the dirtiest players in NFL history.
How could Collinsworth pretend we don’t know? Same reason Goodell does.