Your inbox approves Men's coaches poll Women's coaches poll Play to win 25K!
NFL
Roger Goodell

Armour: Despite another embarrassment, Roger Goodell isn't going anywhere

Nancy Armour
USA TODAY Sports

Roger Goodell has more job security than someone inheriting the family business.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is learning this is not a dictatorship.

Seriously. The guy has botched every significant discipline decision he’s made, the last one so badly it was out and out ridiculed by a federal judge. Even his former boss has said he’s gone too far. NFL players can’t stand him, and Goodell probably shouldn’t waste his time waiting for an invite the next time his (former?) BFF throws a pre-AFC Championship party.

And yet, he still has a job.

People in the real world have gotten fired for far less so what, exactly, would it take for Goodell to get the heave-ho? Sorry to disappoint the players union and just about every NFL fan, but unless Goodell announces he was the league consultant on Concussion or schedules the next owners meeting at a Red Roof Inn, he’s not going anywhere.

Period. End of discussion.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

PDF:Read Judge Berman's decision

You can make all the arguments you want for why NFL owners ought to dump Goodell – and there are plenty -- but there are 10 billion reasons why they won’t dream of it. Or 1.4 billion, take your pick.

Those numbers, of course, refer to the NFL’s estimated revenues last season and the sale price of the Buffalo Bills last year. Goodell has made the owners an obscene amount of money during his time as commissioner, and there’s no way they abandon the gravy train simply because they’re going through an extended run of bad PR.

Don’t forget, too, that Goodell’s dictatorial style is exactly what the owners want.

Every other major sports league allows for independent arbitration when players appeal punishments related to off-the-field conduct. Players may still wind up being unhappy with the final results, but the system gives everyone a feeling that they’ve had a fair shake.

That’s not the case in the NFL, where Goodell is the judge, jury and executioner. It’s a system that’s inherently flawed, even when Goodell is right. Instead of actual justice, or even punishments that have some meaning, it leads to protracted and bruising legal battles that wind up overshadowing the original issue.

Take Deflategate. I still believe the New England Patriots were doing something fishy with their footballs, and there’s no way that’s happening without the knowledge and approval of a future Hall of Fame quarterback.

But U.S. District Judge Richard Berman never even took that into consideration in vacating Tom Brady’s four-game suspension Thursday. It was all about the process and how Goodell abused it.

Again.

“They had a terrible case. They had a terrible case on the facts,” Alan Milstein, chairman of the litigation department at Sherman Silverstein in Moorestown, N.J., and the lawyer for Maurice Clarett when he sued the NFL for early entry into the draft.

“To risk an opinion by a well-respected judge like Judge Berman, that is going to haunt them in the future,” Milstein said. “It just makes no sense.”

It does to the owners. This is their league and they’ll make the rules, thank you very much.

No matter how many losses the NFL piles up in court, the owners have no interest in Goodell having tea parties with the union where they sing Kumbaya while collaborating on a disciplinary process that’s both effective and reasonable.

“It’s important to the ownership,” Goodell said when asked at last month’s owners meeting if keeping final say on disciplinary matters was important to him. “… The authority of the commissioner is to protect the integrity of the game and in particular the personal conduct policy outside of that. That’s my job, it’s my responsibility. I take it seriously, the ownership knows that.

“There’s been no discussion of changing that,” he added. “The ownership has no inclination.”

So there you have it. Goodell takes the hits so the owners don’t have to. He is, in the words of Cris Carter, their Fall Guy.

And before you get too indignant on the union and players’ behalf, remember that they agreed to this.

The commissioner’s power was at issue when the current collective bargaining agreement was being negotiated in 2011, with numerous players expressing concern about Goodell’s reach. But when it became a choice of sacrificing their paychecks or their principles, the players almost unanimously chose the latter, with only the Pittsburgh Steelers voting against the CBA.

It’s a bad setup, and everyone can forget about it getting any better because Goodell isn’t going anywhere.

Featured Weekly Ad