Rogeez. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

Of course it’s Roger Goodell.  If there is anything or anyone threatening the game from the point of view of the diehard NFL fan its good ole Rogeez.  For those of us who follow this game 365 days a year the Commissioner should have relatively the easiest job on Earth.  Just sit back and count the money and leave our game alone.  Not too much to ask if you ask me.  Unfortunately, Rogeez is ruining for us because of one major problem; he doesn’t give a crap about the loyal fans of the NFL.  He’s got our money, he’s got our loyalty, and he’s got our attention, and he’s smart enough to know that there’s not a whole lot he could do to seriously threaten any of those in his attempts to put more money in his and the owners’ pockets.

Roger Goodell’s first public “FU” to the loyal NFL fans was Spygate.  To have a cheating scandal to that degree involve one of the highest profile teams and coaches in the league could have destroyed the league.  The way Goodell chose to handle it, however, he just destroyed the evidence instead.  The scandal that, in 2007 alleged the New England Patriots, at that time winner of three out of the previous eight Super Bowls, had been video-taping opponents defensive signals during either games or pregame walk-thru’s.  Belichick actually admitted to a certain degree of the video-tapping, citing he thought he was within the rules as long as the footage wasn’t being used during the same game.  This does explain why the Patriots, during their success, were just so damned good against teams in the playoffs in which they had already played during the regular season.  2004 AFC Championship anyone?  Still makes me bitter just to think of it.  But rather than rehashing every infuriating detail of Belichick’s clear “If you ain’t cheatin, you ain’t trying” coaching philosophy the takeaway is that rather than hold the coach and the team more accountable than a fine and a loss of a draft pick, the commissioner destroyed every single shred of evidence involved in the investigation, never to be reviewed by anyone else.  That move will always follow Goodell for the remainder of his tenure as NFL Commissioner.  Just unheard of to uncover a cheating scandal of that magnitude and destroy all evidence involved.

The next time Goodell was involved in a team-scandal was last year with the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal.  In spite of being partly responsible for the brilliant PR move to highlight the Saints’ success in the wake of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to the point where for a few years it almost felt like rooting against the Saints was akin to rooting for hurricanes, Rogeez waged an all-out war on the coaching staff and some players when a bounty/pay-for-performance program was discovered to be ran on the team for several seasons.  The team was initially warned to stop the program immediately without any retribution but the warning was ignored and the story of the bounty program blew up across the league last summer.  In response, Goodell immediately suspended then DC Gregg Williams indefinitely (which later turned out to be for just a year), and HC Sean Payton for the entire 2012-13 season.  Then Rogeez set his sights on 4 Saints players.  Without the proverbial “smoking gun” linking any specific player to a bounty to cause injury to another player, Goodell proceeded to suspend Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Anthony Hargrove, and Scott Fujita for lengths varying from the entire season for Vilma to three games for Fujita.  Each player appealed the suspensions, which in the power-hungry world of Goodell means he just says no again, and lawsuits were filed all over the place.  Most notably Vilma and Rogeez began a season-long pissing contest that even involved a defamation lawsuit filed by Vilma.  Eventually, the matter was turned over to former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who overturned and vacated all player suspensions.  The damage had already been done; the Saints finished the season 7-9 and missed the playoffs.  Screw the fans; Rogeez was on a mission to discipline.

Speaking of discipline, the biggest bone of contention that I have with Rogeez is his policy on discipline.  From his reaction to off the field incidents to the suspensions for what is now called “dangerous hits” Goodell has been extremely inconsistent with his interpretations of the personal conduct policy and the illegal hits he’s now trying to outlaw.  Remember last offseason when player after player were being arrested for DUI’s, drug possessions, and various incidents?  Guess how many of them were suspended under the league’s personal conduct policy?  You guessed it, zero.  Goodell was brought in partly to be the Big Bad Wolf and be tough on players and their behavior since that was never Tagliabue’s strong-point.  Ironically, seeing has how many times we’ve seen shots of Goodell hugging it out with every Steelers favorite preaching linebacker Ray Lewis, Goodell was brought in to control the league’s discipline partly in response to the high-profile murder investigation Lewis was involved in.  But the biggest problem I have with Goodell and his personal conduct policy is it seems he relies on fame and popularity of the player to determine how harshly, if at all, he will react to their conduct.  Just 2012 NFL player arrests ranged from DUI to domestic violence and Rogeez never suspended a single player.  For the on-field hits, so far James Harrison has been the only player suspended for being what he has been dubbed as a “repeat offender” of the violent hits club, although most of the hits he has been fined for in the past were questionable at best as to whether or not they were by the rule, illegal.

My final gripe with Rogeez and why I fear he’s ruining my favorite of all sports is his constant need to expand the season and/or bring it overseas more.  Just leave it alone, dude. We all want more football because we enjoy it so much but we know that if you extend the regular season to 18 games it’s going to water-down the product and it’s going to suck.  I don’t want to watch 4 weeks of teams resting players after they’ve already clinched their spot any more than I want to actually sit down and watch all 4 weeks of preseason games but I can recognize the purpose for the preseason games.    I don’t want the playoffs expanded so that we have an 8-8 or 7-9 team making the playoffs each friggin year.  And I don’t want more games in London.  The biggest proof that Roger Goodell is an evil genius is that he scheduled the Steelers to play in London next season.  None of us actually wants the possibility of a team in London or a Super Bowl in London, or any variation of that but Steeler Nation travels so damned well we just couldn’t resist buying up all those tickets and immediately sold out next year’s Steelers game against the Vikings in London validating Rogeez’s feelings that an NFL team can succeed in Europe.  It’s a very scary thought to deal with the reality that someday in the future, the Super Bowl, which is already too far out of reach for the diehard fan that can’t afford the average $2K a seat, could also involve a flight to London on top of the cost of the game.

Basically, I would like to plead to Rogeez to leave my NFL alone.  Just sit back and count the money.  Now I’m not that old, so this isn’t a “old people can’t change with the times” kind of situation.  I’m all for changes that will enhance the game and will enhance the fan experience of the game.  I just don’t think Rogeez gives a crap about my experience of the game so the changes he wants to make aren’t with my preferences in mind.  When the NFL’s new television contracts go into effect the NFL will go from printing their own money to crapping out golden footballs and my fear is that the greed will then take over the owners and Commissioner’s intentions and slowly phase out the diehard fan in attempts to gain more money from trying to get new fans.  Might sound like an elaborate evil plot, but I wouldn’t put it passed them.

What are your thoughts, Steeler Nation?  Do you think Goodell is hurting or improving the NFL?

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Jan 31, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; NFL former player Troy Vincent speaks during an NFL health and safety press conference at the Ernest Morial Convention center. Super Bowl XLVII will take place between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens on February 3, 2013 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

To say that concussions could ruin the NFL for fans doesn’t exactly tell the whole story.  Fans themselves are in no danger of getting concussions, unless of course you’re going to a 49er’s game and you might get a concussion in the stadium bathroom or parking lot (see previous post on fan violence).  But in all seriousness, I’m not trying to take an issue that seriously threatens the health and safety of other individuals and making it all about how it affects the fans.  I’m not unsympathetic to the NFL player or the former NFL players who suffer through their injuries and the after effects of their injuries.  However, the attention that this has brought to the league will most definitely has a chance to affect the sport, even before it’s proven if it actually affects every player in the sport.

There are a lot of things that will always serve as a disconnect between the players and fans of the NFL.  The main issue is compensation and that will always be an issue.  The other disconnect between the fan and player is the physical commitment to the game.  Sure we may follow our teams from birth, have logos tattooed, travel all over the country to watch games, etc.  But we are by no means coming close to the physical commitment to the game the players make, not even in the same breath.  We give up our money and time to our teams; they give up their bodies and health.  The NFL has always been a violent game, since the days of leather helmets the main objective for the defense is to separate man from ball or try by any means necessary to prevent the offense from scoring.  That’s what we enjoy watching, and honestly that’s what the players enjoy doing.  But in this day and age where media outlets that do not regularly cover the NFL are doing specials on the safety concerns of playing football, the POTUS is asked whether or not he would feel comfortable letting his son play the game if he had one, and 4,000+ former NFL players are suing the league over head injuries, not to mention the Commish’s never ending hypocritical stance on player safety; the game we all know and love could be in danger.

Last month, Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard predicted the death of football as we know it in the next 30 years.  His prediction was that the NFL rule makers would be lightening the game up little by little, more flags being thrown, more players fined, more rules implemented to protect certain positions and as a result the fans will give up on the sport entirely.  Not likely.  We’ll be pissed, we’ll scream at the TV a whole lot more than we do now, we will flood the internet and message boards with a whole lot more complains over officiating and whatnot but I doubt we’ll give up entirely.  The biggest opposition to the concussion awareness movement is the fact that most players and fans alike don’t want to see anything in the game changed.

Right now the lawsuit between the 4,000+ former NFL players and the NFL over how head injuries were dealt with could be the biggest cause for concern over where the league is headed in regards to rules changes and such to protect, or give the image of protection, for player safety.  We all know that while Rogeez will tout player safety in one press conference he’ll just as passionately argue for additional regular season games, playoff expansion, and anything else that will extend the game and put more money in the wallets of the owners and NFL executives.  The message has been mixed for a while.  Without going into too much detail (because the Commissioner will be getting his very own post in this series of things ruining the NFL for fans) the way Rogeez has handled this issue initially has lead to the biggest worries for fans.  The lawsuit threatens the NFL in the way that causes the most damage, in their pockets.  The lawsuit is being set up in similar fashion to the 1998 Tobacco Settlements in which former players are alleging that the NFL had prior knowledge of the after affects and dangers of head injuries and purposely withheld that information from its players.

Whether or not they can actually prove that remains to be seen.  Surely there would have to be documents, emails, medical reports, and testimony from previous eras in which the NFL personnel and executives were trying to hide information from the players just like in the tobacco case.  The massive growing list of players joining the case represents a threat to both sides of the table, in my opinion.  The bigger the number joining the lawsuit makes for bigger headlines in the media and puts more pressure on the NFL but also dilutes the amount of players who might actually be suffering and in need.  How many of these 4,000+ are actually suffering from mental and physical health problems and how many are out of money and think they’re entitled?  There is a dangerous double standard in the NFL by the players, fans, and the media in which a player who plays through injury is considered a “warrior” whereas a player who is constantly on the sidelines is labled as “soft” or “injury prone”.  There’s no denying that we know now that head injuries can lead to all kinds of health issues in the future but the responsibility for those head injuries and their lingering effects remains to be seen.  Junior Seau most notably, committed suicide last year and his brain was found to have tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease that might lead to dementia, memory loss, and depression and has been linked to be caused by repeated head trauma.  Seau’s name never appeared on an injury report for a concussion during his 20 year career in the NFL.  Does that mean he never had one?  No.  Does that mean he might have hid symptoms from his trainers, coaches and team doctors?  Probably.  Is the NFL responsible for his death?  I’m not in any position to even attempt to answer that question.

The main point I’m trying to get across with this post is that, as a diehard fan of the NFL, the real NFL, I want the game improved to protect players’ safety in ways that doesn’t change the face of the game I’ve loved all my life.  I’d like to see the safety measures reflected in the equipment the players get, consistent penalty calling and player fines, and not in turning the NFL into a glorified flag football league.  I would hope that the changes the NFL can and will make in the attempt to make an inherently violent game less violent will be mindful and effective.  There has to be responsibility taken by all parties involved, too.  We as fans shouldn’t condemn a player for sitting out with an injury or praise him for playing through it, we’ve got to be somewhere in the middle.  You can’t eliminate injuries completely, but how you treat them can make all the difference in the world.

What are your thoughts, Steeler Nation?  Do you fear for the future of the NFL because of the growing concern over player safety?

Follow me on Twitter @Kimmy_KimKimM and follow all of NPC’s posts @NicePickCowherC and Like us on Facebook

Minnesota Vikings Kyle Rudolph named 2013 Pro Bowl MVP. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

What We Learned in the NFL Pro Bowl:

• Defensive-struggle Pro Bowl edged out by NFC
• Players plead to keep Pro Bowl alive

Another year, another Pro Bowl where not many people watched and not many players put a lot of effort.  The 62-35 win for the NFC seemed a little more competitive than previous years, but it’s too early to tell if it was competitive enough for Goodell to keep it going.  Rogeez has already stated that if the Pro Bowl wasn’t “competitive” enough, it would be the last one played.  Was this Pro Bowl competitive enough to keep it going?  Does anyone care?

The NFL Pro Bowl is arguably; ok inarguably the worst pro-sports All-Star game out there.  No contest.  Surprisingly, the Pro Bowl is also still the highest television rated All-Star game of all professional sports because, football is king and always will be.  Yet each year the debate heats up about how awful the Pro Bowl voting is, how meaningless the label of Pro-Bowler is after all the drop outs and replacements are made, and how pointless the game itself is.  People act as if the Pro Bowl’s existence physically affects them somehow.

First off, each year when the Pro Bowl teams are named the NFL “experts” take their time to weigh in on how stupid the fans are for voting or not voting in certain players, as if a sports All-Star game should have nothing to do with the fans at all.  And let me just at this real quickly; is there any other sport where fans are criticized as much as they are in the NFL?  In the NBA fans will scream at players and throw things enough to provoke player to jump into the stands and physically fight them but somehow NFL fans are the barbaric morons who don’t know anything about the game they’re watching.  Ok, getting off my soap box now.  After the Pro Bowl teams are announced, the players start dropping like flies.  Whether it’s injuries of the season that the players drop out of the game for, the fact that now it’s the week before the Super Bowl and naturally all players named in the Pro Bowl playing in the Super Bowl can’t fly to Hawaii, or just plain disinterest that causes the Pro Bowl teams to look for 5^th and 6^th replacement players by the time the ball is snapped that creates more criticism of the game.  Now that makes the label of being a “Pro Bowler” a little less significant when you think about by the time the game is played, those playing in it were likely no one’s first choice to play.

Then the actual game is just painful to watch in it of itself.  Naturally, players aren’t going to play full force for an exhibition game, and we don’t really expect them to.  I don’t understand why all of a sudden for the sake of the Pro Bowl, the term “exhibition game” becomes a dirty word when critiquing how the game is played.  I don’t want players to injure themselves for an All-Star game.  I don’t really care if they’re not going full force; I’m not expecting them to.  I think the Pro Bowl is a time for the players that end up going there to enjoy themselves and the fans that actually watch it, are looking to watch players having fun rather than hitting hard.  The Steelers had only one representative at the game this year with Maurkice Pouncey starting at Center.  Heath Miller was also named to the Pro Bowl but could not play due to his knee injury.  Pouncey not only flew his twin brother Mike out to Hawaii with him, but he also flew the entire Steelers offensive line out for the week of festivities.  Gotta love the big men sticking together.

What’s the solution to the Pro Bowl?  Does it need a solution?  I think something needs to change if not just to stop the bitching about it every friggin year.  I do not agree with the sentiment that the way the NFL game is played it does not lend itself well to an All Star game, I think it does.  Probably not in this same format, but an All-Star weekend of festivities isn’t a bad idea to keep in the NFL.  First off, the “experts” need to stop complaining about the fans voting their favorite players over who they deem worthy of an All-Star appointment, a fan vote is always going to be part of the process, if it isn’t then why the hell would we watch it at all?  Second, if the All-Star voting is tainted because of the fan participation and the amount of players that drop out and have to be replaced, why does the Pro Bowl nomination still count as a way to validate a player’s career?  Why, for years, did the NFL shove Philip Rivers’ “elite” status down our throats by touting the Pro Bowls he’d played in if those very same experts state that we don’t know what we’re doing when we’re voting players in?  I think the Pro Bowl, or any All-Star game for professional sports is more about the connection between player and fan and the “experts” need to take themselves completely out of the equation.  I think the format of the Pro Bowl should be more about fan and player interaction and less about playing an actual game.  If there needs to be a list of players nominated each year as the best players in the league for evaluation purposes, let those all-knowing experts name those guys themselves.

After all the ranting and raving the actual highlights of the game included Houston’s DE JJ Watt going out for a few passes at WR, Jeff Saturday (now in the NFC with Green Bay) actually taking a snap with Peyton and the AFC, and Ed Houchuli getting laughs calling an actual penalty in the game.  Vikings TE Kyle Rudolph was named MVP with 5 catches and 122 receiving yards.  Several players including Watt and Giants WR Victor Cruz spoke to the camera and Goodell saying they were playing hard in attempts to keep the game going.  I doubt Goodell is actually going to abolish the game entirely, but then again I wouldn’t put it passed him either.  Brace yourselves for the week ahead, Steeler Nation; it’s going to suck with the Super Bowl coverage.  The only highlight will be when hopefully Jerome Bettis is named to the Hall of Fame class of 2013 on Saturday.

Follow me on Twitter @Kimmy_KimKimM and follow all of NPC’s posts @NicePickCowherC

Did anyone get the license plate number off of that truck that just hit me?

What We Learned in Week 9 in the NFL:

• Luck has the Colts better off than anyone predicted
• Chicago defense rips apart Tennessee
• Falcons remain unbeaten
• Steelers battle Giants and Refs and come out on top

Don’t look now but the Steelers are stacking wins.  This is one of those weeks where I find myself searching for things to say about the other games that were played before I can just go on and on about the Steelers.  Actually, there were some pretty poor matchups on the slate for Week 9 across the board.  The Colts reached 5-3 after a very good performance by Andrew Luck against a very good Dolphins defense.  Chicago completely obliterated Tennessee and continued their streak of scoring defensive touchdowns.  The Atlanta Falcons remain the NFL’s only unbeaten team as the Cowboys continue to struggle living up to the constant hype that surrounds them no matter how crappy they are.  Ok that’s enough, now onto the Steelers game. (more…)

NFL International Series. How did that NFL Europe turn out? Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

The NFL owners decided this week that they will include a second game to be played in London during the 2013 season and they have picked your Pittsburgh Steelers to face the Minnesota Vikings in that second game.  The plus for Steelers Nation (that doesn’t live in Minnesota) is that it will be considered a home game for the Vikings and won’t take away a game from Heinz Field next season.  Coming from the NFL perspective, this couldn’t be a better pick for the second game abroad, considering how well Steeler Nation is known to travel.  What does it mean for the diehard NFL fans?  Well in my opinion, it’s just another piece of proof that Goodell and his owner buddies don’t give a crap about us diehards.  They’d rather earn fanship from Europeans and casual fans here than please those of us who will continue to shell out our hard earned cash for games and licensed products anyway. (more…)