NFL commissioner Roger Goodell talks on Sept. 19, 2014, in New York during a news conference addressing the rash of NFL players involved in domestic violence.To be fair, the last couple of weeks have been tough for Roger Goodell.
Every media outlet has played and replayed the footage of Ray Rice punching his fiancee. That gave way to debate and frustration and unknown. The league and Goodell handed Rice a feather-soft two-game suspension. The world bucked and blustered and the NFL — the most popular sports league and pop culture entity in America — was caught flat-footed.
Goodell was the face of the outrage, the banner carrier for indifference and arrogance. It was appalling, and the leader of the league — who makes more than $40 million a year as he has lifted NFL football into an entertainment monolith — had no answers then.
And he had no answers Friday, when Goodell faced his Game 7, his Super Bowl, his at-the-foul-line in a tie game at the Final Four before the world and gagged. His speech was tone deaf and so uninspiring that you had to wonder if Brick Tamland and Bernie from “Weekend at Bernie’s” prepped him.
He said there was a problem. He stammered as he said the league was wrong. He looked nervous and as emotionally invested as a mannequin.