Get tough, Goodell

Banqshot

By Adam Cancryn

Three disastrous weeks put Roger Goodell's legacy in danger. Six years into his tenure, it's time now for him to stand up and take charge.

Surely you could not have seen this coming. Who could?

In your six years as NFL commissioner, we've witnessed scandals and controversies, infighting and sniping and all-out hostility. There was the player lockout, those damn concussion studies, the retired player lawsuits, the active player lawsuits and the string of arbitrary punishments, just to name a few; and that's in addition to the daily contemptible act of being a shill for 31 old rich guys.

And yet after making it through all that, it was the referees who brought you down, who tarnished your legacy and rewrote the first lines of your bio. The referees! The only NFL constituency loathed by everyone had turned the tables and pitted nearly everyone against you. If you cannot be blamed for one thing during your time in office, it is that you did not see this coming.

But there you were, presiding over a catastrophe. Three weeks in, and the NFL was burning. On one side were the owners, those 31 penny-pinchers (and the Packers' board of directors) who got you into this mess. On the other side sat the referees, backed by an army better referred to as the entire football-watching free world. Even Scott Walker and Paul Ryan opposed you, and they spend their free time forcing firefighters and teachers to fight to the death for a satchel of golden coins and half a thing of health care.

You sat in the middle. It wasn't your fault, this lockout. We understand that. The owners could fund the referees' pensions with the change collected from stadium cupholders following a Sunday slate of games. They didn't want to, mainly because few people in the world have ever deigned to tell them "no," and it took a game-changing screwup just to bring them to the table

Yet while crises like this are not your fault, it is your job to fix them. It is your job to "protect the Shield," as you famously said, and so far during your tenure the owners have used that Shield as a doormat. In the process, the game became more dangerous, the overmatched and intimidated scab referees sparked outrage, and the fans lost trust — if not yet interest — in the NFL. The "product" (again, your words) faced grave danger, and it will again if you don't get tough.

If the referee lockout taught you anything, it's that you must start to push back against the owners, and do it publicly when necessary. The pulpit of the commissioner's office is your most powerful tool, and without using it you don't stand a chance. At no time was that more apparent than the deafening silence emanating from 345 Park Ave. in the wake of Monday night's stunning incompetence. You're the commissioner of the NFL, the CEO of a multibillion-dollar enterprise and the commander in chief of the world's most popular war game. Act like it.

We're not expecting you to side with the players on every point, or even stray far from the league's money-over-everything approach. But we expect leadership. It took three weeks of gridiron-bound chaos to push this deal through. Next time — and there will be a next time — it's up to you to strong-arm everyone to the negotiating table. The players still want assurances that the work they do won't destroy them in 20 years. Find a way to protect their heads, before every season starts with a moment of silence for the latest round of players to kill themselves. The fans just want to watch the game they love. Deliver the quality they deserve at a price that doesn't disqualify three-quarters of the country or sink their cities into debt.

You cannot control the owners, and you cannot control the players or referees. This much is true. But this much is also true: the job of a commissioner is to persuade and cajole and coax everyone into a healthy coexistence that furthers the game of football. Doing so is not easy, and you might not be well-liked by the end (what commissioner ever is?), but it's what you signed up for. And on multiple occasions now, you've failed. The Shield, and your legacy, have suffered. If not financially, than in the public's eye.

Now is the time. Stand up, find your voice, and start doing what is right for the NFL, and only the NFL. It's time to lead.

Adam Cancryn is an editor and co-founder of Began in '96.