NFL

No resumption without resignation

Sep 9, 2014, 2:55 AM | Updated: Jul 26, 2024, 9:32 am

Resign, Roger.

We all make mistakes. However, when you build yourself up as the defender of the shield and make an egregious error while attempting to defend that shield, you can’t be trusted further.

There is a higher standard for Roger Goodell than for the rest of us. It’s not to say he’s less human than we are, but that’s the price of the position. Goodell is the highest-paid commissioner in sports. He makes almost twice as much as Bud Selig, the man that knows how to run an investigation to protect his logo. The NFL should expect twice as much from its commissioner.

Ray Rice was suspended for two games for knocking his fiancee unconscious. Rice was then suspended indefinitely when video of the event came out. I’m borrowing this comment from Fox Sports Arizona’s Jody Jackson, but what did anyone think a man knocking a woman unconscious would look like? Only now, this is a crime against the NFL shield worth indefinite suspension because there’s video.

Read the Greg Hardy police report. As bad as the Ray Rice video is, Hardy’s situation appears much more heinous. Since there’s no video, Hardy had a sack this weekend for the Carolina Panthers.

The new suspension of Rice while Hardy and Ray McDonald continue to play is the height of hypocrisy. The system of discipline enforced by the NFL when a crime is committed against women is not due process. It’s “do video” — as in, “Do you have video?”

The NFL said Monday, Sept. 8, is the first day it has seen the video. This leaves three questions:

1) Are you telling the truth?

2) If true, how did a gossip website secure the video before you?

3) Why are you still commissioner?

Either the NFL is willing to lie about the actions of Atlantic City law enforcement, or all of the NFL’s legal contacts, former law enforcement officers (which are on the payroll) and NFL security personnel can’t run an investigation as well as TMZ. You choose one of those options, Mr. Commissioner.

You’ve made your living pretending to be a tough protector of the shield. Too bad you aren’t half as tough in protecting women.

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No resumption without resignation