Today, we’ve come to pay respects to our dear, departed friend; the National Football League.
To those who knew our friend, she was a beauty.
She was the shining light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, which signaled the change from summer to fall and the exact moment we can stop caring about the sport of baseball.
For years, the NFL featured endless excitement, absolute joy, lingering sorrow and sickening anxiety which fans absorbed like a drug to which there is no cure.
However, the likes of the NFL were ultimately done in by the most unlikely of sources: a single man.
That’s right, one man lead to the death of the National Football League as we know it, and it’s the most despicable thing the sports world has ever seen.
That man, as you may know, is the infamous commissioner Roger Goodell.
Since his tenure began on Aug. 8, 2006, Goodell has charged himself with bettering the “integrity of the game” when it comes to the sport of football and the NFL.
Okay, that’s all fine and dandy, since no one wants coaches and teams running around with steroids and stickum like it’s the 1970s.
But there has to be a line, and Goodell went from teetering that line a year ago with his Ray Rice debacle to flat out falling through the ceiling within the year.
Just look at his repertoire when it comes to league suspension:
In the year 2007, Goodell suspended nine players for off the field actions, with two of those suspensions lasting for at least a year (Michael Vick, indefinite, and Adam Jones).
In comparison, Goodell’s predecessor, Paul Tagliabue, suspended a total of nine players over the course of three years, spanning from 2002 to 2005.
Of course, all this becomes hogwash when you realize Goodell then suspended 11 players the very next year.
Now, suspensions are warranted for illegal activity, I get that.
But being the judge, jury and executioner for every NFL proceeding in the past nine years is a bit excessive.
This all receives even more escalation when you read ESPN’s report that one of the calling cards of Goodell’s reign, “Spygate” (as it’s known in the football community), was essentially covered up.
Spygate was when the three time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots were caught filming defensive signals of opposing teams from 2000-2007, which was during the heart of their three Super Bowl wins.
Goodell allegedly covered Spygate up to defend the image of the NFL and its poster franchise and then did a 180 to try and bury it by physically destroying the evidence.
Yeah, now we can all agree now that Deflategate was overblown, but only because it was a make up punishment for the rest of the Spygate issues.
Did any of that remotely make sense? No? Good.
This last season epitomized the stranglehold Goodell has on the NFL, and the rest of his occupation proves how wrong he is.
His intentions may have been pure to begin with but now he’s soiling the image of the NFL, and it’s unclear whether or not she’ll recover.
