The 5oth Super Bowl will take place this Sunday in Santa Clara, California, and on this golden anniversary of the biggest sporting and entertainment event in the world, we need to look at the state of the NFL as described by Commissioner Roger Goodell.
By his accounts, things couldn’t be better with the league, as they are making more money, and are as popular as they have ever been. This is a far cry from Super Bowl I, when there were empty seats in the game between the Packers and Chiefs. Ticket prices are astronomical, and the two-week buildup to the actual game has become comical and mundane. How many ways can you ask the same questions of the players and coaches?
NFL State of the League Prior to the Super Bowl – A Fan’s Perspective
There is so much to say about Goodell and his rose color glasses that it would take pages and pages to go through all the issues that are never addressed, but they need to be for the NFL to have any credibility. It doesn’t matter what is going on behind the scenes, as long as they continue to have record breaking viewers on Sunday, countless sponsors spend upwards of $5 million for a 30-second spot and endless Hollywood entertainment parading through northern California all weekend.
Here’s a short list of things that are serious enough to talk about (but not this weekend!):
CTE or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
The news this week about former Raiders star quarterback and hopefully soon to be Hall of Fame recipient Ken Stabler is disturbing at the very least. The “Snake” died last July, and his last words to his partner at the time were, “I’m tired.” Those were the final utterances spoken by a once great and proud man who played the game hard.
Just add him to the list of former players who have endured traumatic brain injury playing the sport that they grew up loving – and fans worshiped every season. Junior Seau, Dave Duerson, Frank Gifford, and most recently, former New York Giant Tyler Sash, who at a very young 27 had demons of his own because of the constant battering of helmet-to-helmet contact.
The paltry words of condolences and concussion related protocol in the NFL this year is nothing more than sweeping a very serious and ongoing issue under the rug. Goodell and the rest of the owners wish this would go away, but unless something serious is done to study, combat, and help fund those former and current players who suffer from CTE, it will be a more dragged out and very depressing discussion in the near future.
Rooney Rule
Did anyone really think that the announcement this week from Goodell that they were invoking the Rooney Rule for women who want to become coaches in the NFL is anything other than a PR stunt?
How many women, at this point in time, are NFL football ready to coach a bunch of men? It’s not to say that they can’t do it, but there’s not a long line of female coaches at the ready to take those positions. Bravo to Bills coach Rex Ryan for hiring Kathryn Smith as an assistant – she certainly was more than qualified for her years with the Jets and now Bills, but she is a diamond in the rough at this point.
The Rooney Rule was established years ago. It mandates that at least one minority candidate was to be interviewed for a coaching or front office position with NFL teams. Unfortunately, the rule was put into place to ensure that the league didn’t look like the all lily white owners being accused of not hiring individuals based on their color.
To be honest, the latest move is an insult to women and minoritiea that are more than qualified to have these positions throughout the NFL. There are many teams that already have hired minorities and women in front office positions, as well as a cadre of excellent coaches. To bring attention to this, just because of gender and color during Super Bowl week is just not necessary – and rather bizarre.
Manning/Brady et al.
The focus of the NFL this Super Bowl go round is to see if first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning took HGH during his neck surgery recovery in 2011. Not that it matters that he is playing in this year’s big game, or that he’s been as clean and the national poster boy for the NFL the last decade. The league, in its infinite wisdom, is doing their due diligence on the accusations – from an Al-Jazeera report that was refuted by the person who first came out with the allegations. Bravo.
This from the same league office that spent millions of dollars and time determining whether another Hall of Fame quarterback, Tom Brady, deflated balls during last year’s Super Bowl run. It’s a good thing to see that the Commissioner, the owners and the league have their priorities in order.
This from the same commissioner that doesn’t seem to want to get into the Johnny Manziel issue, the Greg Hardy debacle, the alleged betting on games by former Cowboy Joseph Randle, or the outrageous play by Vontaze Burfict and Odell Beckham, Jr., launching themselves like missiles at opposing players – in order to inflict as much physical damage as possible. Another star for the NFL.
Las Vegas/Los Angeles/St. Louis
For a league and a sport to go out of their way to condemn legalizing sports betting in states who can truly use the money, it doesn’t bother them or matter if they partner with DraftKings or FanDuel, as long as there’s millions in sponsor money – or that the owners sanction and own part of the fantasy operation.
Lately there has been talk of having a franchise in Las Vegas. It would be so NFL-like and hypocritical to move the Raiders or another franchise to Sin City and not even give a second thought about what Vegas is all about – to gamble. How dare state governments, who need funds to provide valuable services to their citizens, find a way to make additional revenue by ‘legalizing’ sports betting -while the off-shore accounts and bookies take in billions a year.
It seemed too easy that the Rams were able to move out of St. Louis and back to Los Angeles and allowing the Chargers the opportunity to leave San Diego and follow them on a sweet new stadium deal. What about the fans in St. Louis who spent their hard earned money on tickets, parking, concessions – not only to mention the thousands who are out of jobs, the businesses that counted on the games each week, and the money coming into the city. It seems that it was all ‘business as usual’, and too bad for the good fans of the gateway to the west.
There’s so much more to talk about, but it would be futile at this point, to bring up all the transgressions about the National Football League – especially when the light is shining on them for Super Bowl 50. This is, after all, their week to show the rest of the world how great they are, how much better they can be, and how much money they can make, despite problems getting more widespread in the sport.
Goodell stated that he would certainly allow his child, and encourage them, to play football if they could. He didn’t mention the potential health consequences or any of the other caveats about playing a ‘real man’s game’. It certainly didn’t stop him from playing, getting a coaching gig, and becoming a puppet of the owners.
We all hope that Super Bowl 50 will be a tremendous game and event for all fans of football. We can all bank on great commercials, halftime entertainment, and maybe even Peyton Manning going out a winner. Regardless, football is never going to stop the momentum they are on, and it would take a herd of elephants to stop the juggernaut that the NFL has become throughout the world.
It would be nice, however, if they did hire folks who cared enough about the future of the sport to address some of the issues we mentioned above – and actually do something positive to address them. At this point, it wouldn’t matter the color, gender, or age of the person. Just someone who could do the job, without someone on the other thirty two teams telling them what to do.
