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

Armour: Glossing over issues, State of the League address does nothing

Nancy Armour
USA TODAY Sports

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s an exercise in futility to expect substantive answers from Roger Goodell. Any shred of compassion, either.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote to Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake that the league is returning $723,734 paid to teams for events to honor the military.

Goodell held his annual state of the NFL address Friday and, apparently, everything is hunky dory. The tough new personal-conduct policy is working, never mind that slap-down by a federal judge over Deflategate. The quality of play has never been better, though the folks in Jacksonville, Cleveland and Dallas probably would beg to disagree.

There’s absolutely no reason to revisit the league’s policy on marijuana, even if it is legal in Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Alaska and, in limited circumstances, Washington, D.C. Or that it has legitimate medicinal purposes, including for pain management — which just might be helpful for NFL players.

There’s been "great progress" on concussion prevention, even as an as-yet-untreatable disease continues to rob an alarming number of former NFL players of their personalities and quality of life.

As for those high school players who died this season, well, yes, it’s tragic anytime there’s a loss of life. But there’s a risk in sitting on the couch, too.

Roger Goodell wants new personal foul rule, defends kids playing football

Yep, you read that right. Goodell was asked about the children dying playing the game he champions – seven deaths from July to November 2015 alone, according to USA TODAY Sports records – and he had the audacity to compare it to kids frying their brains on Xbox and PlayStation. (I’m sure the Madden and EA Sports folks loved that answer, by the way.)

“What we want to do is get people active,” Goodell said. “The discipline, the teamwork, the perseverance, those are values and those are skills that will lead you through life, and I believe football is the best to teach that.”

There are other ways to teach kids those values that won’t put them in the morgue.

This glib performance is hardly new. Every year, Goodell gets a handful of softball questions that he’s more than happy to answer: games in the United Kingdom and Mexico; tech summit; and the cute kid who gave Goodell the chance to promote youth sports and the NFL’s supposed interest in women. Double bonus!

WATCH: Go inside the CBS truck at Super Bowl 50

Then he spends the rest of the 45 minutes artfully glossing over the bad news and evading attempts to pin him down for real answers.

Take the Rams’ move to Los Angeles. No sooner had Goodell finished gushing about the Rams returning to their “real” home and how transformative it was going to be for the NFL, then he spoke earnestly about what a priority it is for the league to keep teams in their current cities.

Unless the move will help the NFL reach its goal of $25 billion in revenue, of course.

St. Louis wasn’t going to help further that goal, making it expendable. The fans in San Diego and Oakland would be wise to remember that, regardless of how genuine Goodell sounded about keeping the Chargers and Raiders in their respective cities.

Raiders owner Mark Davis: Las Vegas is 'absolutely an NFL city'

The thing is, Goodell has no reason to say anything of substance, let alone be sincere about it. The NFL might as well be printing money for the billions it makes year after year after year. Domestic violence. Deflategate. The devastating effects of head trauma. Even an entire season’s worth of bad officiating.

None of it puts a dent in either the NFL’s popularity or its bottom line, and that’s all that matters to Goodell and the owners of the 32 teams to whom he answers.

Why Goodell even bothers meeting with the masses is beyond me, except that it gives the NFL Network programming on an otherwise quiet day at the Super Bowl. But after his tactless answer to the question about dead teenagers, he might want to reconsider it.

Sometimes, Roger, there’s a risk in getting off the couch.

Follow columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.

PHOTOS: SUPER BOWL 50 PRACTICE

Featured Weekly Ad