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Dimitri Liapis

Professor Leah Huizar

UWRT 1102

April 3rd 2017

The Roger Goodell Effect

Ever since 2006 Roger Goodell has been the National Football League commissioner. With only

a few improvements Roger Goodell has made to the game of football, he has also created a lot of

backlash that deems him an unfit commissioner. Being selfish, impulsive and ignorant when

making impactful decisions for the NFL, whether it is re-locating a football team to another city

or attempting to expand the game into other cities outside of the country, and being unable to

separate his personal life with his professional work life, Goodell has proven throughout all of

his monumental mistakes, that he is unfit to be the NFL commissioner, due to the position

requiring a lot of responsibility and handling issues in a mature manner.

During his decade of power as the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell hasnt ever been

popular with the fans, but has been despised more than usual within the past few seasons. Sure,

everybody hated him because he is lifeless, shows no personality and is boring but now the entire
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country has another reason to hate Roger Goodell. In recent years the NFL owners and Roger

Goodell have made plans to re-locate specific football franchises. Usually, when a football

franchise is re-located it is because the stadium is out of date and the revenue coming in does not

equal or go beyond the maintenance cost of the stadium and sports team. This has been a real

issue as of late, as the NFL community will have witnessed three team re-locations in the past

three years. The total number of teams that have been re-located in the leagues history is 18.

Meaning Roger Goodell will be responsible for 1/6 of all NFL re-locations. In Goodells defense,

it is understandable to re-locate if the franchise cannot provide the money it needs to stay operate

the facility for a full season. Actually, it seems as if Roger Goodell is being reasonable and fans

should not have any reason to be upset with Roger Goodell but, it is the locations that he is

taking the decaying franchises to that upset the fans. In 2016 Roger Goodell told the league that

the St. Louis Rams were returning to Los Angeles, California. The commercials and promos on

the T.V. deceived viewers around the nation that the city of Los Angeles was rejoicing at the

sound of the L.A. Rams returning to California after 20 long years. A great advertising

committee indeed because the matter of the fact is, the return is not as wonderful as Goodell and

the NFL want you to think it is. According to usatoday.com the L.A Rams were welcomed home

by hardly anyone. In a tweet by Fred Roggin, the sports anchor at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles,

California, the Los Angeles Rams in week 12 of the 2016 NFL season, were ranked fourth in Los

Angeles television rankings. Not only were they ranked fourth, but two other NFL games and a

college football game were higher ranked in ratings. Why is this? I mean Roger Goodell told the

world that the Rams were returning in multiple promos on TV and it gave the league fan-base

plenty of time to get ready and buy the new merchandise. Well, the reality is, the Rams were and

are to this day a below-average NFL team. Also, the Rams did not have a designated starting
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quarterback coming into Los Angeles and the last year as the St. Louis Rams, the teams record

was 7-9 meaning they only were able to accumulate seven wins in 16 weeks. In fact, the St.

Louis Rams have not had a winning season since 2003.This is the reason the nation was upset,

Goodell had forced a terrible team into a competitive business environment which lowers the

chances of the L.A Rams success. The city of St. Louis was upset because the franchise was

brand new and had only been in St. Louis for 20 years which compared to a majority of the

franchises is a short time. However, Roger Goodell would not listen to fans and believed more

revenue would come from Los Angeles due to the population and life of the city. Since there is

always going to be a mixed reaction, few Californians celebrated the return which convinced

Roger Goodell to continue his selfish plans that he had for the NFL and continued to re-locate

franchises. The next year in 2017, Roger Goodell and San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos

agreed that the Chargers no longer had life in San Diego and were unable to get the upgrades that

the stadium needed for future seasons. Then, in January of 2017 the Chargers were also re-

located. After this relocation, the NFL would have allowed two teams to be re-located in two

years which exposes the inconsistency the NFL has when doing business and earning revenue. To

make matter worse, fans were shocked but also curious where San Diego would move, since the

Rams moved to Los Angeles it would be unlikely for the Chargers to move there as well and

everyone wanted to know where the Chargers next home would be. Unfortunately, despite the

awful year the Rams had in their return, Goodell took the Chargers to Los Angeles along with the

Rams. One must scratch their head upon this decision due to the poor result and reaction from

the Rams return, it would not make logical sense to bring another losing team to Los Angeles.

After receiving nationwide backlash and having St. Louis and San Diego share their newly found

hate for the commissioner, Goodell told NFL reporters that there is a high demand for football in
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Los Angeles and it is a big city with amounts of opportunity. However, fans want winning teams

and Roger Goodell created another problem by giving Los Angeles two awful teams, and neither

of them have made the playoffs in nearly half a decade. Now, L.A. football fans who are already

upset, will be encouraged to pick a losing franchise and cheer for that specific team. Encouraging

fans to pick a side, will split the revenue of Los Angeles to two different franchises and will be a

competitive battle against two teams in different divisions. It could make sense if the Chargers

and Rams were in the same conference but that is not even the case, the two teams have no

rivalry or relationship that make this franchise duo relevant. If the losing trend continues, fans

will most likely go back to rooting for the team that they have adopted in the 20 years when Los

Angeles was without a team. Watching this unfold in just under two years, it felt as if California

as a state was falling apart because of the NFL intruding on what seemed to be peaceful property.

Now with just two teams left in California that were not forced into Los Angeles, many analysts

believe that old Charger fans will now turn to the Oakland Raiders fan base looking for a new

home. However, the San Diego fans will not have that new home for long since the Oakland

Raiders just finalized a deal to relocate to Las Vegas Nevada (Stites 2017). With the Chargers

and Rams having to compete against each other and the other activities in L.A., the Raiders now

have to compete with sin city, the place of gambling and other miscellaneous activities that the

NFL is strictly against. Having the majority of teams from California being pushed into Los

Angeles or relocated elsewhere shows how forceful and greedy Roger Goodell is as a

commissioner. When the first attempt to bring the Rams back did not meet the expectations,

partially because Los Angeles moved on, Goodell just smiled and thought happy thoughts while

creating a second attempt to collect support in Los Angeles with the relocation of the San Diego

Chargers. Now Goodell plans to move the Raiders, who had just obtained their first winning
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season since 2002, to Las Vegas Nevada. After all the loyalty from the Oakland fan-base, they

are rewarded with one winning season before Roger Goodell snatches the team from Oakland

and throws them into an entertainment boxing ring better known as Las Vegas. Roger Goodell

seems to lack self-control and is only going after one thing, money. The San Francisco 49ers

were the only team to survive Roger Goodells abduction of NFL teams and the 49ers have just

fired their head coach, cut the starting quarterback due to his inability to transform his game and

additional distractions that the quarterback provided in his last year with the team. The state of

California is a train wreck in terms of the NFL business, and all Goodell will do is smile and turn

his head in the other direction. While California as a state and all of the cities that have lost their

franchise to Roger Goodell attempt to find a silver lining, Goodell continues to create his ideal

scenario of how the NFL future should look. Giving no more help in California and giving St.

Louis no compensatory gift or respect, Roger Goodell continues to transform the scenery of the

game by scheduling games to be played in London.

The NFL recently released on their website nfl.com the four games that will be playing in

London during the 2017 season. These four games are, Baltimore Ravens vs. Jacksonville

Jaguars, New Orleans Saints vs. Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings vs. Cleveland Browns and

Arizona Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Rams. Roger Goodell explained this four-game schedule in

London saying We continue to be incredibly excited by the passion and love for the NFL shown

by our millions of UK fans, he continues to say. London is an amazing city. We have had

tremendous support from our fans, from Mayor Khan and other government leaders and business

partners, and we are looking forward to taking the next step in the UK by playing four games in

London next season (Smith 2016). Since Roger Goodell has tremendous support on the

international stage it doesnt seem like a problem bringing just four games into London to allow
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the international fan base to grow, except it is an enormous problem. Although Roger Goodell is

correct when saying there is major support in London, he forgets to mention that the NFL is

losing money due to the expenses that are needed to make the same product in London. Even the

leagues head of national development Mark Waller said in a statement on the Chicago Tribune,

For all that popularity, the games are still losing money (Panja 2016). Waller continues by

dissecting the problem and saying that the league does not make enough money from British

Broadcasting rights and sponsorships to offset the cost of stadiums in London. When Waller says

this, it makes Roger Goodell look incompetent and clueless about the business aspect of the

game because Roger Goodell took three franchises in the NFL and placed all of them in a bigger,

newer stadium where the cost would be exponentially greater to maintain and operate a game as

opposed to the previous smaller stadiums. Not only that, the teams have shown no signs of

longevity with history and patterns of losing games and generating little revenue in smaller

markets. Essentially Goodell is taking the child that doesnt know how to swim at the

neighborhood pool and is throwing him into the ocean. Goodell believes more pressure equals a

better chance at surviving. However as long as Goodell has money, he will continue to operate

his way and is even considering placing a franchise in London sometime in the near future.

According to skysports.com, Goodell elaborates on the possibility of a franchise across

the pond saying, "The biggest obstacle is whether we can do this on a competitive basis for the

team located here (in London)," Goodell said. "That is something we have to have the utmost

confidence in, because it's what our league is based on. "We want a team to play here and

compete on the same level as you could if you were in the States. I'm getting more confident in

that because we're looking at the challenges and we're finding solutions for them" (Skysports

2016). What solutions? Why are you more confident? These are questions that are raised when
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Goodell reflects on the decision of having a franchise in London. Notice how Roger Goodell

never gives any specifics or detail which once again exposes the inconsistency and uncertainty

Goodell has with the business aspect of the decision. Not to mention, that if Goodell were to give

London a franchise, it would not be an expansion franchise meaning adding a 33rd team to the

league, it would be another case of taking another cities team and forcing it into a world of

uncertainty. Of course, in all business deals there are risks but the results have already been

reflected in the States and the relocation to London will not bode well with fans in the America if

the fans cannot accept a single L.A. team. If Goodell contained the business savvy that pretends

to have, why would he not just send the franchises that he took back to the original city, and

make four new franchises in these new locations? Obviously, there is a money concern but now

the fans understand the money concern because they have lost their franchises and if Goodell

would give the smaller cities a second chance, the cities will most likely invest in the NFL to

ensure the team does not go bankrupt and then Goodell could have created a whole new division

with the four teams that he created. Although, this would create another need to change the

game again and extend the number of playoff games due to the four extra NFL teams. However,

the league has already been looking to extended the post season for years now (Patra 2016).

Putting all of the new additions together would allow each asset to benefit off of one another,

potentially making the NFL the well-oiled machine it used to be.

Another reason to deem Roger Goodell as unfit if one were still questioning the matter,

is the fact that Goodell cannot separate personal problems from business issues. During the 2015

and 2016 season of the NFL, two of the NFLs greatest quarterbacks gained criticism and were

questioned about cheating during the season. The first quarterback being Peyton Manning for the

Denver Broncos. Toward the end of the 2015 regular season there was speculation that Peyton
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Manning used a performance enhancers to boost his strength to provide him the ability to throw

the ball down the field. Since he was getting older and was struggling in the beginning of the

season but suddenly turned his fortune around and was headed into the playoffs, it made sense

that someone would criticize Mannings true ability and whether or not he is getting assistance

from supplements. On the other hand, it was Tom Brady getting criticized for deflating the game

ball in a 2011 playoff game against the Colts. At first attempt to suspend Brady, Goodell

succeeded after claiming Brady had not cooperated with the NFL when under speculation. Brady

later had appealed the decision and had the outcome overturned. However, Goodell went after

him recently in the 2016 season and suspended Brady again, this time Brady would not attempt

to appeal the case. Not only did Goodell go after Brady, he went after Brady twice. When

Manning was asked about the recent speculations of taking HGH supplement, Manning first

described the whole argument as trash and then according to www.piop.net would then state the

only supplement that he ever took was something called Alpha Prime Elite (White 2016).

Manning never denied the accusations and instead told the league he was taking another

supplement that was supposedly legal to use. However, the NFL treated both situations entirely

different from one another. An article in http://www.nydailynews.com claims Roger

Goodell threw the book at Tom Brady the Wells report was an astounding 243 pages of

convoluted logic and then tossed just a measly four paragraphs at Peyton Manning

to exonerate him from HGH allegations. (Meyers 2016). However, the reason that the difference

in the cases results are so alarming, is because the NFL could not provide any evidence toward

either of these allegations but proceeded to suspend Brady and not Manning. Manning would

then go on to win the Super Bowl that year in 2015, after the speculation and questions were

suddenly silenced and Brady would also go on to win the Super Bowl in 2016. Advocates for
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Roger Goodell might say that the amount of suspicion and the specific details that the NFL

could not provide doesnt even matter because both quarterbacks went on to win the Super Bowl

in the year that they were criticized and questioned. Although, to those advocates I say this, the

paths to the Super Bowl were entirely different. In Mannings case, he would lead his team the

Denver Broncos to victory in the first round of the playoffs and then show signs of struggling

and decline. However, the team continued to find new ways to win whether it was from the

defense or Peyton Manning just so happening to create a clutch play at a brilliant time and the

HGH supplement issue was never brought into the public again, despite all of these Cinderella

stories the Broncos had in the 2015 playoffs. Looking at Bradys run to the big game, he did not

have a Cinderella story, instead he had two battles he had to win. The first being the objective of

the season and to get to the Super Bowl, but now everyone was wondering and asking Tom

Brady and coach Belichick how they would interact with Roger Goodell if they just so happened

to win the Super Bowl. On one side, you have Peyton Manning who is being promoted and

defined as the guy whos still got it and then in Bradys year is being defined as the rebellious

quarterback to go against the authority and win the Super Bowl. Obviously very different

characters portrayed during the two runs that these quarterbacks made, but why? It was because

Roger Goodell never once bothered Manning or created a distraction for Peyton Manning,

however, during the Patriots run into the Super Bowl Roger Goodell would not attend a Patriots

playoff game and claimed he had to watch every team in the playoffs and he attended a Patriots

game two years ago, (Hartwell 2017). Avoiding the Patriots home games during the crucial point

of the season gave Roger Goodell a bad look and never denied the accusations. Goodell never

came to the public on his own and cleared things up with the Patriots, he made excuses, and why

is that? Perhaps Goodell wanted Brady to have the distraction, since he was still upset at Brady
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because Brady was suspended for a quarter of the season and is now in the playoffs. Maybe Tom

Brady foiled Goodells plan to keep the Patriots out of the post-season games. Actually, it seems

too similar to a Hollywood movie to be reality, it is probably just an unfortunate series of events

where Goodell could not attend Tom Bradys games. Well that could be, but if one were to look

into the history of the Super bowl 50 which was the previous year where Manning won the

Lombardi trophy, one would also find some very eerie and suspicious coincidences. In the

Super Bowl 50 game which featured the Carolina Panthers and Peyton Mannings Denver

Broncos, there were quite a few relatable factors in the game that prove the Super Bowl 50 to be

rigged, which therefore, proves Roger Goodell to allow the bias in him as a fan to overrule his

professional position. First off, the officiating crew itself was highly suspicious, that is before the

match began. The head official of Super Bowl 50 Clete Blakeman has officiated for five other

Denver Broncos games in his career as an official. The Broncos have won all five games.

Blakeman's crew called more than twice as many penalties on the Panthers (12 accepted, plus

one declined) as it did on the Broncos (six), and the game's total of 19 flags represented an active

night of officiating by Super Bowl standards. (From 2001-14, the average number of penalties in

a Super Bowl was 13.43.) (Seifert 2016). Although that may just be a bad look for Blakemans

crew it still doesnt answer the question of why would Goodell still assign Blakeman to the

Super Bowl game the Broncos were playing in. If it was not rigged and Goodell was impartial,

wouldnt he hire a more experience officiating crew, not to mention in the same year Blakeman

could not get a coin to flip to determine who gets the ball in overtime during a Packers game.

(Thomas 2017). If an official does not have the capability to flip a coin, how does the

commissioner allow the same official to control the most prestigious and important game of the

year. Either way Goodell loses here because he either did a subpar job at choosing an
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experienced official for the most important game in the sports season or, he chose Blakeman

with the intention to help Peyton Manning win the Super Bowl while being unable to separate his

personal view with a professional view. Not only was Blakeman being questioned after the game

but Jimmy Oldham, a replay official was being accused because of a catch that was ruled

incomplete, reviewed for a lengthy amount of time and remained incomlete to prevent the

Carolina Panthers from advancing the ball and the very next play resulted in a Broncos

touchdown. Jimmy Oldham reportedly is a Denver-area resident. His wife donned a Broncos

jersey for the game and posted a celebratory video to a public Facebook page (Florio 2016). If

you were to take a look at the picture again at the top of this paper, you will notice that the two

Bronco fans being Oldhams wife and friend, were wearing an Orange and Dark Blue mask.

Maybe it was a ski mask to keep the cold away from the face, eyes, or nose. However, this game

took place in San Francisco California, the average temperature in February when the Super

Bowl was taking place is 54 degrees according to http://www.usclimatedata.com. If one is from

Denver, Colorado, the 54 degree California should not require a ski mask to attend the game.

Unless there was an intention of wearing such an accessory to remain a hidden identity until the

damage was done and then Roger Goodell and the Denver officials could celebrate.

As a fan of the NFL one hates to see situations come up where it draws so much

speculation and bad publicity that it creates an evil identity to attach to the beloved football

league. However, maybe the reality of it is, is that football should not be looked at as a fans

best friend. In fact, maybe the reality is that the league has always favored certain teams and has

been operating like this for its entire existence. Or maybe Roger Goodell has clawed his way to

the top to finally become the commissioner only to create his dream league that will inevitably

destroy the love and passion for football that many Americans have. However, everyone has
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their own opinion about Super Bowl 50 and Tom Brady vs Roger Goodell story, but since Roger

Goodell has entered the NFL scene in 2006, nothing has been the same and now Goodell is

slowly getting exposed for his inability to promise an enjoyable and consistent NFL future but

also for his inability to separate his personal life with his business life. Being at the powerful

position that he is, the NFL cannot survive much more of the Roger Goodell effect and this unfit

commissioner must be removed from power.

Works Cited
Belson, Ken. "N.F.L. Says Officials Missed Head Hit on Panthers Cam Newton." The

New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Sept. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.
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"Folks in Los Angeles Still Prefer Watching Other NFL Teams than Rams." USA Today.

Gannett Satellite Information Network, 05 Dec. 2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

John Breech @johnbreech. "Roger Goodell: 'Realistic' Possibility That London Gets an

NFL Franchise." CBSSports.com. N.p., 06 Apr. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017

Myers, Gary. "NFL Throws Book at Brady, but Clears Peyton in Only 4 Paragraphs." NY

Daily News. N.p., 25 July 2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

"Play It On Point - Dating Psychology." Play It On Point! N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

"Roger Goodell Says Playoffs Still 'likely' to Expand." NFL.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr.

2017.

Sports, Sky. "Roger Goodell Is Confident of Forming a London NFL Franchise." Sky

Sports. Sky Sports, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Stites, Adam. "It's Official: The Raiders Are Leaving Oakland for Las

Vegas." SBNation.com. SBNation.com, 27 Mar. 2017. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

"Strange Facts Emerge about Super Bowl 50 Replay assistant." ProFootballTalk. N.p.,

n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

"The Worldwide Leader in Sports." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, n.d. Web. 03 Apr.

2017.