If you have ever watched Comedy Central, Saturday Night Live or any other comedy programming in the last 50 years, I am sure you have a favorite. I would say, “Move over” to those shows, as there is a new program that appears to supplant everything before now.
That show is called the National Football League. It can be seen on Sunday, Monday night and Thursday evenings. While watching the NFL has been funny, the joke is for all the wrong reasons.
The latest chapter deals with the officiating. Never has a league embarrassed themselves more than what is going on in the league now. Each game features officials who are trying, but they just cannot keep up. They are replacement scabs who have failed miserably in every sense of the word.
If you saw some of this weekend’s games culminating with Monday night’s fiasco, you have to wonder when will it end? Bungled play after bungled call is now par for the course, and it’s getting worse by the week. The only thing left is it will soon cost a team a playoff spot, a team a key player due to injury and certainly the reputation of the most popular sport in the country.
With all that said, the blame falls into the lap of one man: Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Goodell had a chance to fix this early in the game but he has decided to break the union at the cost of the members of the National Football League. Goodell is obviously waiting on an owner who has lost a game or key player before he acts on ending this officials lockout.
But why did it comes to this? It’s simple. He has failed as the leader of the league. In his short tenure Goodell has been involved in a lockout of both players and officials, the whole bounty case in New Orleans that he has mishandled and a bevy of lawsuits that are coming from every direction in how the league has handled the whole concussion issue.
The most recent flap involving the officials is a disgrace after it was learned earlier that he is taking a more active role in negotiations. I’m sorry, but when you have the reputation of the league at stake not only do you have to be in the room, you don’t leave the room until the deal is done. Goodell has stepped in it with both feet, and the smell is starting to expand.
The most telling issue in why Goodell is a bad fit comes from his well noted chummy relationship with New England Patriot owner Robert Craft. Rams fans may remember how he handled the case involving the Patriots being caught taping practices of the opponent as well as stealing signs. Normally someone would have been suspended, but instead they just fined the Patriots and slapped them on the wrist.
I bring up the Patriots because on Sunday their head coach Bill Belichick was so upset with the officials and the blown call that cost him a game that he actually grabbed one to let him know his feelings. I not sure if you know this, but putting your hands in aggressive manner on a official is more than against the rules. It’s a grievous violation that normally comes with a fine and suspension.
At least that is how it works in every other sport and every other team in the NFL. In this case, the league elected to fine two coaches for the Denver Broncos because they were seen berating officials on the sidelines. They got hit on Monday. As for Belichick, he only stated he “meant no disrespect.”
Moving. Funny that we heard more from the perpetrator than we did the league, who as of Monday had not said a word. I guess Goodell was awaiting word from the Patriots owner before he can slap him on the wrist. Now you see why this is a comedy.
There is one that parallels and that is the National Hockey League, which is going through its third labor lockout since Commissioner Gary Bettman has been in control. The only problem here – not as many people care about the NHL as they do the NFL.
Something should get done this week, as the NFL cannot make themselves look anymore embarrassing than what they have given their fans since the lockout began. When the dust settles, there will be a coach if not players whose jobs will be in jeopardy because of the incompetence of the leadership of the league, and yet the best they can do is sit back and try to prove a point that they are the NFL, and we are not, and they can do whatever they want.
Boycott the games in protest? Fat chance. We are suckers for the game and what it means to our weekends.
So here we go again. Another sport has taken advantage of the fans, yet we continue to support them.
