One of the Good(ell) Guys
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You know it is springtime when the various foibles of NFL players begin to surface en masse. It seemed this year was no different, with several players reportedly running afoul of the law or the NFL’s substance abuse policy.
Enter Roger Goodell, the new NFL commissioner.
I wasn’t sure what to think of Goodell when I first heard the announcement that he would take over for Paul Tagliabue. Tags had overseen a complete overhaul of the league and with it the emergence as football as America’s game, not baseball. While many may decry that statement, it has become readily evident that football has surpassed baseball in popularity.
Goodell may have secured that legacy for years to come with his tough policies against players who cross the line, and I for one am giving him a standing ovation.
For too long pro athletes have been coddled by their teams. Criminal behavior was swept aside by dream team legal eagles, hired mercenaries doing the bidding of the owners and players in the name of winning. It has gotten so ugly that I have already forsaken basketball, and have questioned my passion for the gridiron game on more than one occasion.
When Goodell suspended Pacman Jones for a year without pay, we took notice while at the same time wondering whether it was simply a maneuver to salve the league’s reputation. When he subsequently did the same with Chris Henry and then again with Tank Johnson, what seemed a sliver of hope has turned into a bright sunny day in professional sports.
Our children look upon these men and women as heroes, emulating them on playgrounds and athletic fields across the country. My children have on more than one occasion raised questions about the nefarious yet often smoothed over actions of players in our area. Locally last year it was a player pointing a gun at someone at a McDonald’s and another driving his car into his wife’s to stop her from leaving in the middle of an argument. This year Elijah Dukes allegedly threatened the life of his soon-to-be ex-wife and their too children, and of course the issues that seem to link Michael Vick to dog-fighting.
The message Goodell is sending, if he indeed enforces the lines he has drawn, is one that must be sent to all athletes in all pro sports. Just because you are getting rich playing a game, and just because we follow your exploits on the field with a combination of fantasy and fanaticism doesn’t give them a free pass to do anything they choose. If anything pro athletes should be held to a higher standard.
If Roger Goodell can succeed with his efforts, hopefully he can spark a long-awaited and direly needed revolution in how athletes are treated. Not above the law, but beholden to it.
[tags]NFL, Football, NFLPA, Chris Henry, Michael Vick, Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Roger Goodell[/tags]
One Comment
Shadow
June 8th, 2007
at 9:40pm
You know, that was really cool what you said. I was thinking that it would be so AWESOME to hear words such as yours coming out about things that REALLY matter. I am in no way lessoning the importance of male based sports in our society, such as the role they serve in reducing violence. However, this kind of honor is not often found in the real core of life, in what REALLY matters. You know, honoring promises, not buying slave labor products, being their for ourselves, and those that are in our lives. In this particular situation, I think it is obvious that morals aside, not keeping drugs out of the situation is going to account for a poor team and greater losses. Logic is usually the best way to approach situations. Wrong action is just obvious for the sake of it’s self. If it worls, it works, if it doesn’t, there is something wrong with it.