Sports

NFL pays nearly $30 million to Napoleon Goodell who has done nothing to improve the NFL.

"Stephanie Stradley, a Houston attorney and football writer, summed up the feelings of many in response to this report: “I know at least 100 people who would do a better job for much less [money].” The general response to Stradley and other Goodell critics came from Atlanta Falcons franchise operator Arthur Blank, who heads the NFL’s compensation committee: “The NFL is the most successful and best-managed sports league in the world,” specifically crediting Goodell’s “leadership and the value he brings to the table in every facet of the sport and business of the league.”"

Goodell doesn't make the league money. The players do. And Goodell makes their job harder.

"Goodell’s primary function, at least in the public’s mind, is to hand down suspensions for real and imagined offenses. He enforces a particular moral code that is meant to reaffirm the cultural importance of the NFL. And that more than anything is why Arthur Blank and company keep Goodell around and reward him so handsomely.
The cumulative effect of Goodell’s enforcement policies has been to shift public (and political) attention away from the actions of the franchise operators—lockouts, theft of taxpayer dollars for stadiums, liability for player brain injuries—and towards the players. We can debate how successful these efforts have been, but the franchise operators certainly seem confidant in their own invulnerability. That is the real “performance” Goodell is judged on—how well he reaffirms the franchise operators’ belief in the status quo."

That's an interesting perspective. I've slammed Goodell for his hubris and narcissism, but that may be what the owners like about him. But there may be a more material value here. By blaming the players, because of the way they hit each other, for causing concussions, he may have insulated the owners from lawsuits. The owners probably adopted that strategy a couple years ago, and Goodell is doing a good job as their henchmen carrying it out. I still go back to helmets. If you make helmets into pillows instead of battering rams, concussions would almost never happen.

The more I think about it, the more I think the NFL has really painted itself into a corner on concussions. We know there are safer helmets available, but if the NFL adopts them, it would be admitting the current helmets are less safe. This could cost them tons of money in liability. It used to be the NFL said the players wouldn't accept soft helmets, but they abandoned that line, and now Goodell lies and says the NFL uses the safest helmets available. This is about manipulating public opinion and the jury pool in favor of the NFL. I think this will backfire because Goodell is terribly unpopular.

The NCAA is under fire for its abuse of punitive powers, and it ousted its punitive director.

"Amid the increasing scrutiny, Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A.’s president, disclosed in late January that the organization’s investigators had made “shocking” missteps in a major inquiry involving the University of Miami — and as a result, the N.C.A.A. commissioned an unprecedented outside investigation of its own enforcement program.

On Monday, the N.C.A.A. released the investigation’s findings, showing how its enforcement staff had run afoul of its own rules in the Miami case in such a way that even Emmert said he was embarrassed.

“Obviously, this is an outcome that nobody wants to see on their watch or anybody else’s,” Emmert said.

He added, “This is something that is an embarrassment to the association and our staff.”

The case prompted the N.C.A.A. to oust Julie Roe Lach, whom Emmert had chosen to lead the enforcement division a little more than two years ago, calling her at the time of her appointment the perfect person for the job. An N.C.A.A. spokeswoman said Roe Lach would leave the N.C.A.A. effective March 1."

Penn State is also mentioned. This is a gigantic case of CYA. Let's hope more petty tyrants get ousted.