September 19th, 2014 – Update
He announces the NFL will make a donation to a National Domestic Abuse hotline to help hire 25-employees, and will form committees, with independent advisor to come up with better policies, this after they hired 4-authorities this past week to work in-house on domestic abuse issues.
He answered virtually all the pointed questions about the Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Greg Hardy situations, with generic answers.
He walked around questions, not giving any type of legitimate answers, about the 5-letters from some of the NFL’s biggest corporate sponsors, who have charged the NFL with not doing enough to deal with the player issues, nor taking strong action to stop the violence off the field.
He never once mentioned the words “zero tolerance” leading one to believe the NFL is not on the same page with the Players Association about discipline programs. His recently adopted upgraded policy seems toothless, if the union is going to file grievance after grievance when the players are disciplined. The Ray Rice video of the knockout punch was horrible. The still pictures of the wounds suffered by Adrian Peterson’s four year old son, from a whooping, are sickening.
The discipline that allows Greg Hardy of Carolina to collect 7M-in salary over the next 10-weeks while awaits trial for domestic violence is hideous.
The removal of running back Jonathan Dwyer after 2-violent incidents with his wife in 24-hours speaks volumes that the players don’t get it.
Ray McDonald continues to practice and play with the 49ers despite violence against a pregnant girlfriend, after the Commissioner invoked his new domestic abuse discipline plan.
If this is not the darkest moment the NFL is entering, then I don’t know what is.
And now something else for the NFL to consider. You can no longer brush this all aside. In the past the NFL’s TV network partners would shy away from criticism or covering the entire story. But now with the money the TV networks pay, they are piling on. They all have analysts, and all those analysts will now be asked their opinions on this, and they have been horribly critical of Goodell and the league in the hours since the Commissioner met with the media.
Why? The TV networks want viewers, and talking heads, saying what’s on their minds on a Friday and Saturday, criticism included, now become part of the landscape. The partners will televise the games, but they want viewers to tune to them now for the big story and the reactions too.
NFL relationships be damned now, the networks are now mocking their business partner across every channel, and the NFL is powerless to stop the abuse.
Giants quarterback Eli Manning said it best Friday, aghast at what he has witnessed: “The NFL, the teams, the players, and teammates, need to hold these people accountable-and act on it now.” Alot of good players feel that way. Roger Goodell and the Union don’t seem ready to do that. .
The press conferences may be over, discipline has not been metered out, games will be played, but this noise is not going to go away.
