Roger Goodell Needs A Clue Bat

According to The New York Times NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Thursday the league was looking at a variety of ways to shorten game broadcasts, including trimming some advertising, to keep the action moving.

The league has seen its television ratings plunge this season, something that Goodell has said is related to a number of factors, including the intense interest in the presidential election, as well as shifts in the way fans have been watching games.

Goodell noted, though, that the pace of games could also be a factor in the ratings decline. Fans have complained for years that games are too long, and they frequently express annoyance at the number of commercial breaks and video reviews. He also said he was aware of a surge of complaints that officials were botching calls on the field.

The commissioner floated the notion there the election of Donald Trump as president may have impacted the ratings.  Roger, you simp.  There’s a boycott going on.  Are you that effing stupid?  Ignoring a problem does not make it disappear.

People are fed up with convicted criminals, wife beaters, cheaters and dissidents being on team rosters.  They’re tired of showboats like Kaepernick and Newton.  They’re angry over the disrespect being shown to our flag, our military and our national anthem and, frankly, to the fans themselves.

Until he addresses those issues he will continue to see his precious ratings do a big, fat swirly in his NFL toilet. 

Super Bowl XLIX: My Balls Are Perfect

Well, here we are.  The big day.  The day when the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots take to the field for Super Bowl XLIX.  Big whoop.

I don’t know how you feel about this year’s contest, but I for one, couldn’t be more disappointed in the teams that made it to Phoenix.  Honestly, you’ve got loudmouthed asses who think they are gods.  You’ve got the media who fall all over nut jobs like, well, you name the jerk…

My disappointment is not only with the two teams but the League as well.  They know damn good and well who is responsible for the underinflated footballs and yet are withholding that information until after the game as Commissioner Roger Goodell says, because “We want the truth.  That’s what I think our fans want.  That’s what our clubs want.  And so what we want to do is make sure we find the truth.  If there are violations of the rules, we take them seriously, particularly when they deal with the integrity of the game and the rules.”

How effing mealy-mouthed.

The NFL is full of cheaters and beaters.  That’s the problem. 

The fans deserve far better than what they are receiving.  I used to get excited about watching the game.  Hell, I was lucky enough to go to Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994 when the Cowboys beat the Bills in the Georgia Dome.

There is no such excitement at Casa de Curmudgeon today and there’s no Super Bowl Party as in years past. 

If my rationale is lacking consider these 26 disappointing facts about this year’s Super Bowl.

The Curious Case Of The Incredible Shrinking Balls

I realize I may be setting myself up for some pretty harsh criticism from Patriots fans, but I have to express my total disgust with a team that clearly doesn’t think they can win even a single game without cheating.

In a post I published on Sunday, January 18th, I wrote about the history of cheating by the New England Patriots.  Little did I know that very Sunday, the Patriots would be embroiled in yet another scandal on the gridiron.

The NFL, according to ESPN, found 11 of the 12 footballs New England provided for Sunday’s blowout of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game were underinflated by as much as two pounds per square inch of pressure.

Back on November 16, 2014 Indianapolis Colts safety Mike Adams twice intercepted QB Tom Brady and gave each of the balls to the Colts’ equipment manager to save over concerns that those balls were under-inflated according to ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.  Sources confirm that the League was aware of the Colts’ concerns going into last Sunday’s AFC Championship game.

Monday morning following the game, Brady appeared on WEEI’s “Dennis and Callahan Show” feigning surprise that a deflated ball was even an issue.

“I have no idea,” Brady said as he laughed at the question. “I think I heard it all at this point…It’s ridiculous…Oh, God, that’s the last of my worries. I don’t even respond to stuff like that.”

Dan Wetzel over at Yahoo! Sports puts it right where it belongs:

“As for ‘[hearing] it all at this point,’ the implication is that Brady had never heard of a ball being under-inflated, let alone his. As such, the suggestion was just ridiculous. Like, say, the NFL accusing him of filling it with helium.”

“Through the years, Tom Brady has always been able to remain above whatever the latest fray [was] that engulfed the New England Patriots.” 

“Brady was the quarterback, perhaps teased for his fashion or footwear or occasionally awkward celebrations, but never much on issues of substance. He was the underdog turned megastar, likable and respectable and just oh so good.”

“Bill Belichick played the villain, the supposed win-at-all-costs genius under the ratty hoodie.  When allegations of underhandedness or unsportsmanlike play or anything else hit, it was all assumed to be Belichick’s orders, not Brady’s.”

In 2012, the Saints, after being found guilty of placing bounties on opposing players, Head Coach Sean Payton served a one-year suspension, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams got an indefinite suspension, assistant coach Joe Vitt got six games and general manager Mickey Loomis got eight games. They also forfeited two second-round draft picks and were fined.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has proven he has no stomach for meting out punishments to fit crimes like the brutal assault by Ray Rice on his fiancé. He suspiciously allowed the destruction of Belichick’s “Spygate” videotapes and now he faces yet another credibility problem with a franchise that is a repeat offender of NFL regulations.

He’d better grow a pair and not try to paper over this.  At the very least, Belichick and Brady should be suspended from the Super Bowl.  The club should be fined not thousands, but millions of dollars and they should not have any draft picks for the next two years.  The Patriots need to be taught a lesson.  Get their attention.  If you get their attention, you’ll get the attention of every other player, coach, general manager and owner in the NFL.  Maybe then this deplorable behavior will end.

Am I making a mountain out of flattened balls?  Jerry Rice, 2010 Pro Football Hall of Famer who played in the League for 20 years, had 1,549 career receptions, 22,895 career receiving yards and 197 career TD receptions has an opinion on the matter:

11 of 12 balls under-inflated can anyone spell cheating!!! #Just Saying
— Jerry Rice (@JerryRice) January 21, 2015

Wonder if there's a simultaneous Pats' internal investigation going on: Who was the slacker who didn't deflate the 12th ball? (j/k)
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) January 21, 2015

.@MikePereira on #DeflateGate: "this is cheating and something the league will deal with harshly" https://t.co/9xoTboX6N7
— AtTheBuzzer (@TheBuzzerOnFOX) January 21, 2015

After Further Review Goodell Should Resign

The Appalling NFL “Shield”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell likes to say that for the NFL and football to evolve and continue to thrive, everyone must contribute:  players, coaches, officials, executives and the commissioner. But, he often reminds people, he is the commissioner, and it's his job to safeguard the game's integrity—"protect the shield," as he puts it. And under his watch, the league has become significantly more powerful, with mushrooming revenue and global influence.

On August 28, 2014 Goodell wrote a letter to NFL owners expressing regret about the League’s handling of Ray Rice’s suspension:

"At times, however, and despite our best efforts, we fall short of our goals.  We clearly did so in response to a recent incident of domestic violence.  We allowed our standards to fall below where they should be and lost an important opportunity to emphasize our strong stance on a critical issue and the effective programs we have in place.  My disciplinary decision led the public to question our sincerity, our commitment, and whether we understood the toll that domestic violence inflicts on so many families.  I take responsibility both for the decision and for ensuring that our actions in the future properly reflect our values.  I didn't get it right. Simply put, we have to do better.  And we will."

Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports believes, despite Goodell’s protestations, that the NFL was aware of the existence of the “elevator knockout” video before its release on Monday. SI’s Peter King wrote in July that the NFL had seen the video.  NFL reporter Chris Mortensen talked about the video weeks ago.  On Monday morning, Hall of Famer Cris Carter tweeted that he’d seen the knockout video long before its release by TMZ Sports.

I suspect the claim that the Commissioner did, in fact, see the knockout video is true and any denial to the contrary is a false flag based on the fact Goodell had the “Spygate” tapes destroyed of Patriots’ Head Coach Bill Belichick illegally taping opponents’ defensive signals.

The casino made a copy of the videotape.  All Goodell and the NFL had to do was ask for it.  Goodell is as much a pig as Rice is.

Anyone who wants to give the league and the Ravens credit for doing the right thing has not been paying attention. The League is rife with wife beaters, drug abusers, accused murderers, drunks and drug addicts.

According to a 2013 story in The New Yorker, “One in every four women is a victim of domestic physical violence at some point in her life, and the Justice Department estimates that three women and one man are killed by their partners every day. Between 2000 and 2006 domestic homicide in the United States claimed ten thousand six hundred lives."

Those who are humiliated in such a way learn to disintegrate, that is, they become once removed from pain. This is the most direct route to psychic ruin.

As a woman human being, it is repulsive to watch a man strike a woman, lug her unconscious body partially out of an elevator, walk over her body repeatedly, stand around as passersby see a woman lying prostate on a hotel lobby floor and the man who knocked her out stand around callously.  That’s an image America cannot get out of its mind. 

My hat is off the hotel security officer who stood in the doorway of the elevator long enough for the cameras to capture the aftermath of Rice’s madness.  It is infuriating to think that Janay married a man capable of such violence and apathy.

Ray Rice should be banned for life.  Roger Goodell and NFL owners and coaches need to change the League’s culture of protecting its criminal players.  The NFL has a domestic violence problem and up until yesterday demonstrated that women’s safety doesn’t matter.  Shameful.  Disgraceful.  Reprehensible.