Originally Posted by
suitanim
You know what, that wasn't fair. I shouldn't have just tossed off an answer like that, Chidi. I know you know your stuff, and sometimes I'm guilty of lumping people into groups.
Even though I only spent a couple minutes thinking off the top of my head of a couple things I would do about the NFL, I know you spent more than that formulating a reply, so I should reciprocate. However, I want to preface that with the FACT that at least some of my "off-the-cuff" ideas have more veracity than the garbage the NFL is masquerading now as a lucid policy.
I'll take these point by point:
1. Of COURSE rules are fluid and dynamic. What I'm saying is set a firm policy and then adjust. What the NFL is doing now is trying to "boil the frog" by making little adjustments here and there and over time it will result in something sweeping. That's nonsense and won't fly. Make a drastic change now!
2. X=Y scenario. It's workable. We already have it in our criminal justice system.
3. I VEHEMENTLY disagree with No flag AND fine. It's ridiculous. If the refs can't see it (and they don't see a lot), so what? They miss almost everything going on in the trenches. You want to fine non-flag penalties? Then you better set up yet ANOTHER board to scrutinize every single play from every single angle and fine EVERYTHING. Oh...wait? Not enough cameras to see everything? Add more cameras! See the slippery slope. It's a violent game. Violence happens. If the ref sees it, flag it and fine it. If not, then no.
4. The rest of this I'm lumping into one big mess.
Goodell aside, the NFL is a much different animal then soccer or basketball or baseball. We are talking 9 billion bucks a year, and for a truly violent sport. The checks and balances in place now are thin without being transparent, and there but not widely understood. Bring everything out into the light. Add more layers. Coaches, refs, players, lawyers, owners reps, etc, etc...they all need to be represented.
I look back at a VERY evasive Roger Goodell in his 2009 Congressional hearings and then I see a bunch of the same knee-jerk reactionary retroactive garbage I see everywhere else. 3rd grader takes a gun to school? Let's start frisking all 3rd graders! That kind of thing...everything Goodell has done is CYA (Cover Your Ass). He's a liar and he's hiding and docking and dodging...and that's NOT the way to handle this.
OWN UP! YES! The NFL is violent sport! Concussions happen, and we DID know, but we didn't know how bad it was. So set-up some type of long-term safety net where vested players always have a safe haven and free healthcare forever to deal with it. Don't give BU CSTE a million dollar bribe. Don't hide and duck. Don't deny it, OWN IT! Pay the players in the class action suit before EVERY ex-player gets on board and end this! Own it, address it, end it, fix the game with solid rules that are responsible and make sense and get back to playing football.
Goodell's legacy will be based on this. So far he's done nothing but placate everyone in order to keep revenues up and is ducking and dodging his REAL responsibility which is to be a true Steward of the game.