Fire Roger Goodell as NFL commissioner?

[DDOGG]

Has he done enough damage yet to your NFL?

1. Government oversight of NFL affairs

2. (2) discrimination cases filed with the EEOC

3. The pension board fiasco

4. The CBA

5. Scheduling NFL games in Europe

6. Randomness of his fines and punishments

7. Destroying the Spygate tapes

8. Flipflops on what to do about Vic and depending on whichever way the media wind blew at the time

Its time to say goodbye to Roger!

[Kazkal]

Aye,Time to fire God'ell

[Spor_tees]

That's what you get when you get an economics grad as the commissioner instead of a football executive that knows the game and it's traditions.

[TJJackson]

Worst commissioner ever, hands down

[COB]

That's what you get when you get an economics grad as the commissioner instead of a football executive that knows the game and it's traditions.

That insight about sums it up. I can't stand Goodell, but it appears they got the right man for the job. And rest assured his job is very different than the job his two predecessors Rozelle and Tagliabue had.

Both those fellows sheparded the league, in both a business sense and a football sense, through incredible growth. They helped change the way the game was played, and both brilliantly exploited the broadcasting possibilites of the game. Rozelle by growing it on television, and Tagliabue by expanding it onto cable networks. Both also benefitted from ESPN, Tagliabue from the internet as well.

By the time Goodell fell into it, the NFL was already a money monster. Owners had already manipulated communities through movement or threat of movement. The end result was cities and counties that subsidized infrastructure for the owners. Then the owners, primarily by following Jerry Jones' model, learned to maximize revenue with marketing in the stadium and community. And in a development that still makes my jaw drop, the league has broadcasting partners who pay more than the broadcasts make, using the NFL as sort of a loss leader to draw viewers to their network.

So Goodell gets to leave a legacy of what? He's not going to add a bunch of franchises or grow the NFL. He folded up the Euro league. He's not going to change the way the game is played. So he's left with developing new revenue streams off a mature operations end of the business.

Therefore he does stuff like the NFL network. Develop a broadcasting arm to generate more revenue from existing operations. Also NFL.com, and his move to restrict other online outlets' use of NFL footage so the league's website eventually will be looked at as the place for online NFL content. Another revenue stream attached to existing operation.

To me Goodell looks like a greedy commissioner who cares mainly about how to extract the maximum amount of money from his existing customers. His discipline crusade, and destruction of evidence, is just him protecting the golden goose.

He's not a football guy. He looks like a money-grubbing bean counter because that's exactly what he is. The next CEO of Microsoft won't be a software wonk. The NFL owners hired Goodell to do exactly what he's doing.

[HairOnFire]

So Goodell gets to leave a legacy of what? He's not going to add a bunch of franchises or grow the NFL. He folded up the Euro league. He's not going to change the way the game is played.

My take? Part One of the Goodell legacy is linked to his high profile attempts to clean up the NFL's image. To be fair, much of what Godell has attempted is little more than window dressing, but I've always felt the NFL was ripe for major scandal on a truly epic scale. There's simply too much money involved and too little oversight to think otherwise.

The potential for scandal can take many forms, from the types of cultural embarrassments recently associated with Michael Vick and Pacman Jones, to team condoned steroid and HGH abuse (Carolina, Pittsburgh, etc), to gambling issues that are now only winked at, to cheating scandals like Spygate....and the coverup that followed.

In short, Goodell's attempts to clean up the game to this point have been notable only in the sense that they're little more than high profile distractions to the real issues being faced, and his legacy will be determined by the steps he does or doesn't take when confronting the things that are only whispered about.

So he's left with developing new revenue streams off a mature operations end of the business. Therefore he does stuff like the NFL network. Develop a broadcasting arm to generate more revenue from existing operations. Also NFL.com, and his move to restrict other online outlets' use of NFL footage so the league's website eventually will be looked at as the place for online NFL content. Another revenue stream attached to existing operation.

And there's Part Two of the legacy. Increasing moving traditional NFL operations into the pay-per-view realm.....morphing Rozell's network television driven NFL into the subscriber television and website worlds. For example, in a few years I fully expect to see more and more games aired only the NFL Network. And unlike what we witnessed last season, those games won't be mere curiosities like the Giants/Patriots regular season finale, but critical games that determine playoff fates. If you're a fan you'll want to watch, and you'll pay for the opportunity to do so.

[HoosierCat]

I suspect that Goodell's legacy will have far less to do with either his "clean up the league" act, or how well he squeezes more money out of the NFL stone, than it will with the coming CBA implosion and subsequent labor dispute -- both of which seem more and more likely.

From my chair, it looks like he's already botched it badly, though to be fair I'm not sure he had any real chance to succeed. The league is increasingly run by the big market owners -- Bob Kraft, Jerry Jones, etc. -- whose primary goal is to squeeze as much unshared revenues out of their individual franchises as possible. Thus we approach a point where the CBA might be torn up and a strike ensue, when the real problem is ownerships' revenue sharing agreement. That's what Goodell needs to push to change, but he isn't, as far as I can tell.

[MacD BengalFan]

Has he done enough damage yet to your NFL?

1. Government oversight of NFL affairs

2. (2) discrimination cases filed with the EEOC

3. The pension board fiasco

4. The CBA

5. Scheduling NFL games in Europe

6. Randomness of his fines and punishments

7. Destroying the Spygate tapes

8. Flipflops on what to do about Vic and depending on whichever way the media wind blew at the time

Its time to say goodbye to Roger!

The one item you forgot to mention is the consideration of having the Super Bowl played in another country. This upsets me more then any of the above mentioned items. What he fails to remember is the Super Bowl is our game, to only be played in the United States on American soil only! Moving it to a international venue will only devalue the stature of the game itself. The game was created here, it should stay here!

If I offended our international fan base, I apologize in advance. I understand that you would love the opportunity to attend the Super Bowl, and so would I. Just as Soccer is the worlds sport, the Super Bowl is Americas' game.

[Spor_tees]

Has he done enough damage yet to your NFL?

1. Government oversight of NFL affairs

2. (2) discrimination cases filed with the EEOC

3. The pension board fiasco

4. The CBA

5. Scheduling NFL games in Europe

6. Randomness of his fines and punishments

7. Destroying the Spygate tapes

8. Flipflops on what to do about Vic and depending on whichever way the media wind blew at the time

Its time to say goodbye to Roger!

The one item you forgot to mention is the consideration of having the Super Bowl played in another country. This upsets me more then any of the above mentioned items. What he fails to remember is the Super Bowl is our game, to only be played in the United States on American soil only! Moving it to a international venue will only devalue the stature of the game itself. The game was created here, it should stay here!

If I offended our international fan base, I apologize in advance. I understand that you would love the opportunity to attend the Super Bowl, and so would I. Just as Soccer is the worlds sport, the Super Bowl is Americas' game.

Well until another country can support an NFL team on a long term basis, they don't deserve to have the Super Bowl over any current NFL city. Thinking otherwise is just ludicrous. If he is to change anything about the Super Bowl, it's that cold weather cities without domes, start being considered to host it too and not just domes and warm weather places...but that will never happen because the Super Bowl is more about the Commercialization of the game and not as much about what actually happens during the game.

[Horsemen]

He folded up the Euro league.

Yet another BRILLIANT idea that continues to piss me off.