The NFL's 'Danger From Your Couch'
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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has done it again, and I mean that in the very best way: He serves as the overseer of a sports league that is almost an American religion, with 114 million of us attending "church" on Super Bowl Sunday night to watch Broncos, Panthers, Beyoncé and Puppy Monkey Babies or something.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has done it again, and I mean that in the very worst way: He fielded questions during Friday's "State of The League" Address and in his customary manner he sort of rumbled and bumbled and mumbled through the subjects ... Until he was quizzed by the media about players' safety and head injuries.
"There's risk in life," Roger answered coolly. "There's risk in sitting on the couch."
And it's true, in two situations: 1) There's risk in sitting on the couch if you are doing so while watching the game and your wife catches you unsuccessfully trying to balance your plate of nachos on your knees. And 2) There's risk in sitting on the couch if in pursuing feng shui you position your couch neatly in front of your coffee table but your coffee table is located inside an active volcano.
Otherwise? No, Roger, no.
Unlike many of my colleagues, I am not predisposed to disliking Goodell. (And I'm not just saying that because he follows me on Twitter!) I believe he comes across as "tone-deaf" on this issue and others because that's how he and 32 owners (who, in an endlessly odd arrangement, he both supervises and works for) wish all these delicate issues to be non-handled. From a business perspective, why not? Outside of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's warning that NFL greed is setting itself up to be a hog for slaughter, exactly how many people heard Goodell's inane and insulting "couch" comment on Friday and therefore skipped the game on Sunday?
Substantially fewer than 114 million, I bet.
Goodell is bossman of one of the most wildly successful companies in the history of the planet. Maybe there are legal reasons for him to appear to be in denial on the long-term effects of concussions -- even as seven high-school players died from football injuries in 2015, even as we learn almost daily now of yet another former NFL player with a diseased brain as the result of his occupation.
Or maybe the issue is sidestepped because we still watch the games and Roger's company keeps printing money. Along with Goodell's address comes the NFL announcement of an expansion of its Thursday night TV package for the next two seasons, a deal worth $450 million to the owners. (Ironically, those very Thursday night games might be increasing the likelihood of injuries and concussions but who cares!)
Goodell also touched on the NFL's move into LA, and the dollar figure attached to that transaction mentioned by none other than Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is "$15 billion."
Disrespect Roger Goodell all you wish. But the butcher shop is cutting beefy deals worth $450 million over here and $15 billion over there and we want the butcher to detail the disgusting ways all this delicious sausage is made?
"There's risk in sitting on the couch" is a terribly unfeeling way to answer questions about the dangers of playing football. But what are the right answers - the real answers? I don't know, and I don't expect Roger Goodell to know, either.
But I do know how to research our way to answers, and I do know how to fund our way to research; $450 million could accomplish that, as could $15 billion.
The NFL's sincere effort towards player safety is the best way to tackle a problem that needs solutions ... in the worst way.
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