It’s no secret that in order to own a National Football League franchise, a person must be of a very elitist group. And that group is “The Billionaire Boys Club”. The faces of the respective team owners might be different, but they are all basically cut from the same cloth as they are either self-made billionaires, or they inherited the team from their fathers when they passed away. And if you have a net worth that is more than or close to $1 billion, you have a very hard time taking no for an answer as you are accustomed to getting your way. These team owners have also gone out and found a man to do their dirty work in regards to operating their gold mine, and his name is Roger Goodell.
Roger Goodell
Since 2006, Goodell has been the commissioner of the National Football League and he has continued to build off of the success of his predecessors in Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue who each took the league to new heights on their respective watches. But just like Rozzelle and Tagliabue were the right men for their respective eras, Goodell represents the new NFL team owner which is brash, cunning, and more than ever simply about the almighty dollar. Don’t get me wrong as the NFL has always been about making money, but there was a time when the team owners worked together for the betterment of the league and not their personal issues. However that time has gone.
Over the years there have been other football leagues that have pushed the National Football League for supremacy. From 1946-1949, the All-American Football Conference challenged the NFL with the league ultimately folding in 1949, but not before the big boy NFL took the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers away from the small league. One of the biggest competitors that the NFL faced was the American Football League. The AFL existed from 1960-1969 and they pushed the mighty NFL to the limit as both leagues would merge in 1970 with all ten AFL teams joining NFL to push the total to 26 teams. The World Football League was never able to get off of the ground as it fizzled after just one year and completely folded after just two years, while the United States Football League pushed the NFL in the mid-1980’s which helped to usher in free agency which changed the dynamics of how players are compensated. But now since the NFL is the only professional football show on the block, along with the fact the most of the current team owners have not had to deal with a work stoppage as the last one occurred in 1987, the arrogance from the group of billionaires is astronomical.
Jim Irsay
That arrogance has been on display by the likes of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who have both claimed that they don’t see the connection between head injuries and playing football. Head injuries have become a hot topic in the National Football League due to the fact that for years the league misdiagnosed concussions of some of its players, while there was also the possibility that they didn’t understand the long-term effects of head trauma from playing football which more than likely led to the suicides of former players such as Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, and Andre Waters. Numerous players have been left crippled as they left it all out there on the gridiron, and for some of them, they have nothing to show for it, while the NFL continues to prosper.
The recent years have seen the National Football League turn a blind eye to social issues such as domestic violence. On February 15, 2014, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was arrested on a assault charge along with his then fiancee Janay Parker. The incident took place at an Atlantic City casino where footage showed Rice and Parker entering an elevator while they were arguing. And when Rice and Parker arrived at their destination, Rice was attempting to drag her out as laid on the ground apparently unconscious.
The National Football League “investigated” the incident and even after Rice gave them a full account of the incident, the league decided on a two-game suspension. But days before Rice was set to return to the Ravens, the mecca of gossip and home wrecking in TMZ released the video from inside of the elevator that showed Rice striking Parker. And after the public outcry, the NFL would suspend Rice indefinitely in spite of the fact that he initially gave them a full account of the entire incident. The NFL claimed that they were never able to obtain the footage from the Atlantic City Police Department, or the Revel Casino. However this whole incident makes you wonder as to how an entity such as the NFL that rakes in $9 billion a year cannot obtain footage of one of its players, but a television show can gives you all that you need to know that they really didn’t want to know about the Rice incident.
This was further magnified this year when the National Football League decided to suspend New York Giants kicker Josh Brown after his domestic violence incident. The NFL initially suspended Brown for the first game of the season, but since then new evidence has come out where the kicker claims to have a long history of verbally and physically abusing women. The King County Sherrif’s Department in the State of Washington claimed that the NFL’s “investigator” never informed them that he was affiliated with the league, and thus the information was never released. And since the public outcry over Brown has grown in the past two weeks, the Giants have decided to tuck tail and run by releasing Brown as like the NFL, they never bothered to properly do their homework.
But this is the same National Football League that will talk a good talk into punishing offenders when it comes to domestic violence, however that punishment doesn’t come until the public demands action as players such as Brown and former defensive end Greg Hardy were allowed to come back and collect pay checks after using women for punching bags.
And as Goodell can only sound like Ralph Kramden when he is grilled by the press on the National Football League’s “alleged” stance on domestic violence, this is the same league that was more than willing to throw the book at the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady for “possibly” under inflating footballs during a game in which they were clearly the better team, while this is a practice that other teams have reportedly done as well. This matter went to Federal Court and the battle took place for more than a year, and as the NFL spent all of the money to “prosecute” Brady and the Patriots, they can’t flex their muscles and put an end to domestic violence in their league?
The National Football League has basically let it be known that if you’re a women beater, rapist, or murderer, you have a chance to earn a paycheck from them because you can throw a football 50 yards, make a 55-yard field goal, or sack a quarterback because that is what the league is about which is to do whatever it takes at any cost in the effort to win without regard for anyone who gets in their way.
And as the National Football League is attempting to fix the problem of their television ratings being down this year, they can sit back and blame it on some players refusing to stand for the national anthem in order to promote an end to police brutality all that they want to. But the real issue is that this league has shown that they don’t care about women as they are more concerned about putting a franchise in England, while also shunning those that are proud to be homosexuals, or promote Jesus Christ. However in this NFL, that doesn’t matter as ethics and morals are the last thing on the mind of Goodell and the 32 team owners as they are blinded by their pursuit of the almighty dollar.
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