Roger Goodell's celebration with Chiefs' Chris Jones after Super Bowl is weird

BOSTON -- Look. This is not a space for conspiracies. Neither grand nor small. Not here. That's not what we're doing.

But this is a space to say this: In a culture and time where seemingly everyone thinks everything is rigged, it's important for leaders and executives and public-facing officials to always be wary of perceptions while they are in plain view of everybody.

And with that in mind, the video of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell celebrating gleefully with Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones was ... odd. To say the least.

The video was tweeted out by FOX after the Chiefs beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl on Sunday evening.

Jones lifted the commissioner off the ground in a giant bear hug, before putting him down. Goodell spoke into Jones' ear as the two remained in a tight embrace. The two then came apart for a moment, staring into each other's eyes while keeping their hands on each other, before backing away for a brief moment in order to set up a proper handshake/bro-hug situation.

That bro hug led to Goodell speaking directly into Jones' neck/ear area and saying, "I don't care how you hit the quarterback."

Jones laughed. Goodell smiled. They came apart. They came together. Goodell rested his face on Jones' shoulder pads. Jones grabbed Goodell's elbow. Then the interaction finally came to an end.

This is strange behavior for the commissioner of the NFL. There's no two ways about it.

Had this been a family member of Jones, or a teammate, or a coach, or an old friend from yesteryear, it would have been perfectly normal -- a little sweet, even. The emotions pouring out of players after reaching the pinnacle of their profession is always a delightful event, no doubt.

But the commissioner simply should not be conducting himself in such a way at any point, let alone while in front of everyone on the field while the confetti is literally still falling.

It's unprofessional, to say the least. The commissioner's role after a Super Bowl is to get on stage, smile, hand the Lombardi Trophy to the team owner, offer some sincere congratulations with some handshakes, and then disappear. If a handshake turns into a hug, that would probably be normal. If that hug turned into a long embrace, complete with nuzzling, then it would be weird.

And that's what this was. It was weird.

To reiterate, this is not a conspiracy space. But if you've spent seven seconds on Twitter, then you know there are many football fans who are eager to find ripe ground for conspiracies. An interaction such as this certainly gives off a certain feeling that Roger Goodell was very, very happy to celebrate a Chiefs Super Bowl victory. That it came after a penalty call went against the Eagles to essentially ensure a Chiefs victory only provides more fuel to anyone intent on lighting a fire.

The realistic take is that the levels of execution needed for the NFL to engineer who wins games and championships is far too intricate for Goodell and his cohorts to pull off. If there's a top-down order for a certain team to benefit from calls, somebody on the chain would more than likely end up screwing it up somewhere along the way. Most if not all of suspicious or questionable officiating can be chalked up to incompetence over conspiracy. Mostly.

That's the most rational take on the matter, anyway.

But for the commissioner to behave like this after his league's championship game? It allows for those seeking impropriety to find it. And it opens doors for outsiders to choose their own adventure as far what's going on behind the scenes and in the offices of 345 Park Avenue.

Or, more succinctly: It was weird. Roger Goodell's celebration video with Chris Jones was weird. So weird.

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.