NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
The NFL season is upon us, and to use that phrase from mouthy New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott: "Can't wait."
The National Football League is the most successful business model in the world of sports, and when you consider the perils of the banking industry, the car industry, the steel industry, the dot com world, it might be the only modern day success story in our economy right now.
You will be amped for Sunday's Chargers season opening game with the Minnesota Vikings. You will wear your colors. You will hopefully enjoy the season, and the likely drive deep into postseason.
I've always wondered what it would be like to be the CEO of the most successful business venture in modern day sports, the NFL? It surely isn't the NBA, where their commissioner is screaming lockout, amidst all that red ink. It cannot be baseball any longer, where their leader is engulfed in the quagmire of the Mets involvement with a Ponzi Scheme scam leader, or a Dodgers divorce-bankruptcy, or failing markets. It is not the NHL, which has teams for sale, and is dealing with player suicides this summer. And it surely is not the scandal marred NCAA, conducting probes of wrongdoing on 10-different campuses as the season opened this past weekend.
Roger Goodell is the modern day leader of something special, the NFL. But his waking hours are not taken up by record setting seasons from Peyton Manning, the brilliance of Tom Brady, the dynamics of Philip Rivers, and all the other great storylines on game day.
Goodell has guided his league through the stormy waters of a summer of labor strife, a summer of thunder and lightning involving angry lawyers, unmitigated allegations of greed, and a handful of lawsuits.
The Commissioner's day is tangled in the on going battle to stay ahead of the cheats, users of illegal and performance enhancing drugs. From marijuana, to amphetamines, to cocaine, to heroin, to steroids, to blood doping, to the latest, HGH. It is a never ending war, to catch it, stop it, and now test for it, sadly nonstop.
His days are never-ending when it comes to player discipline. The passion of the game spills into the violent area of the game. Blows to the head, cheap shots at defenseless players, and the continuing saga of injuries.
The workday entails too dealing with litigation, from the players of yesteryear, afflicted with concussions, in need of joint replacements and now angrily demanding help for Alzheimer's and dementia, brought on by chronic head blows. it seems daily there are lawsuits.
The words code of conduct have become part of his lexicon now, not just on the field, but inside the stadium, and now even in parking lots, where gang members, wearing team colors, seem intent on creating confrontation, not necessarily just cheering for the home team.
His post is a continuing battle on how to grow the game, and build new stadiums, in a failing economy. Shiny new homes are everywhere in the NFL, but not in Minnesota, San Francisco, Oakland and San Francisco. There is still work to be done to take care of those teams, like the NFL helped all the others.
His strong-armed approach to dealing with players deserves credit. His public stance about an "honor" to play in the league, not some "right" has been heard loud and clear by many players. Those tone-deaf to that wind up getting suspended.
The leadership has to deal, not just with a powerful NFL players union, but the oft-out-of-control egos of the 32-owners. Some are self made billionaires; some are out-of-touch old school men; some were born with silver spoons; others earned their way to their football successes. Keeping them in line, and not letting profit-taking rip the league apart, seems to be an every minute of the day job.
The intangible challenge going forward will be to convince the paying public, and a growing critical media, that the NFL is not greedy, that it is not all about squeezing every penny from every fan, so the rich man owner profits from the poor fan he sells tickets to.
This commissioner inherited a successful business from the last commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who was too lawyerly, and too-stand-offish for me. Tagliabue turned his head on lots of issues, and left a game headed out-of-control. He had replaced the iconic Pete Rozelle, who watched pro football grow from a mom & pop operation, into a budding business venture. The 2000s sure look different than the 1940s of the first Bert Bell era.
The 2011 season promises to be about more than just great football, but about booming profits and skying television ratings.
His challenge will be to grow the pie financially, keep the game clean, share enormous revenues with all. I'd like to see him do something else, get cost control for the fans, for Sunday tickets, parking, concessions, seem to have priced many fans out of the game.
Roger Goodell cares about the NFL shield and the 32-team logos. His five year run as leader of the NFL has been a challenge from the day he took over the job. He seems to be special. Seems to be intent on dealing evenly with all parties concerned. He seems to be the brightest and best the NFL has ever had.
We will enjoy the Chargers-Vikings on Sunday. I am sure he will enjoy the opening of the season, including the heart rendering 9/11 memorial tribute.
It's the days of Roger Goodell's workweek that test his soul, and every cell of his fabric, to keep the NFL great.
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