Roger Goodell's Message to NFL Players and Fans: Drop Dead

http://www.thenation.com/blog/157438/roger-goodell%E2%80%99s-message-nfl-players-and-fans-drop-dead
Roger Goodell's Message to NFL Players and Fans: Drop Dead
by Dave Zirin | January 3, 2011

Leave it to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to end a thrilling NFL regular season on a sour, ugly note. As football fans, sports radio devotees and chat-room obsessives gathered Monday to discuss the playoff seedings, Goodell issued an ill-timed letter [1]laying out the state of negotiations with the NFL Players Association. Both sides are striving to secure a new collective bargaining agreement and avoid labor Armageddon, but based on Goodell's letter, that's where the similarities end.

In the letter, Goodell seems to be following a tried-and-true strategy: blame the union and sow resentment between the fans and the players they pay to watch. But in taking a closer look at his musty missive, Goodell also establishes himself as a stalking horse for a broader, systemic strategy being used by governors and captains of industry across the country. It’s a strategy that for all the focus-tested language has one end-goal: getting workers to work harder for less.

First, blame the economy: Goodell writes: "Economic conditions have changed dramatically inside and outside the NFL since 2006 when we negotiated the last CBA. A 10 percent unemployment rate hurts us all. Fans have limited budgets and rightly want the most for their money. I get it." Does he get it? There is nothing about lowering prices for tickets, concessions or parking. Instead he goes on to blame the greedy unions for making decent wages and benefits as the reason there may be no football in 2011. As Goodell writes, "Yes, NFL players deserve to be paid well. Unfortunately, economic realities are forcing everyone to make tough choices and the NFL is no different." This is the sporting version of something far broader and more pernicious, as public sector workers are becoming the Willie Hortons of our economy. They have become the 2011 scapegoat of choice as politicians impose the coming austerity. AFSCME has even started a campaign called "No More Lies [2]" to counter the myths of the greedy unionists destroying state budgets.

Goodell goes on to lay out his vision for a brighter future. This brighter future includes players not only playing for less but also working more. As Goodell writes, "An enhanced season of 18 regular season and two preseason games would not add a single game for the players collectively, but would give fans more meaningful, high-quality football." Then without irony and with no transition, Goodell leaps right into his deep care and concern for players' health, writing, "Our emphasis on player health and safety is absolutely essential to the future of our game." Yes, play longer but nothing is more essential than the health of the players. As Pittsburgh Steelers Wide Receiver Hines Ward said in comments aimed at Goodell [3], "If you were so concerned about the safety, why are you adding two more games? They don't care about the safety of the game.... They're hypocrites."

Then Goodell goes after the salaries of rookies, calling for a "rookie pay scale." He writes, "All we're asking for is a return to common sense in paying our rookies. Other leagues have done this and we can too." This is also ridiculous if not immoral. Any sport where each play can be your last should reject any notion of a pay scale. Players in this most violent of games should be able to make as much as the market will bear and not a penny less.

Goodell finally ends with some blather about wanting to achieve this kind of "forward looking CBA" and "protecting the integrity of the game." But there is no integrity in Goodell's vision: only the same blueprint for workers we are seeing across the country: work more, take less. I am sure that there are many who would read this with little sympathy for NFL players as workers. But please consider: a typical NFL career is three and a half years, and as NFL player Scott Fujita said to me, "We're the only business with a 100 percent injury rate." The ratings for the NFL this season have never been higher and no one ever paid hundreds of dollars to see Jerry Jones stalk the sidelines.

But it's even bigger than all of that. Goodell finishes this ill-timed screed by writing, "This is about more than a labor agreement. It's about the future of the NFL." It's also about the future of this country. We are living in a time of severe economic crisis. Whether the bosses or workers are made to pay for this crisis will be decided in battles large and small taking place around the country. But for all of these conflicts, there will be no greater stage or more amplified battleground than that between NFL owners and players. The vast majority of fans have a side in this fight. And it's not with Roger Goodell.

Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

Links:

[1] http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/sports/bob-smiziks-blog/26836-goodells-letter-to-nfl-fans
[2] http://leftlaborreporter.wordpress.com/
[3] http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Best-of-the-Burgh-Blogs/Pulling-No-Punches/December-2010/Hines-Ward-Puts-the-Smack-Down-on-Goodell/

The NFL's Concussion Conundrum

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-zirin/the-nfls-concussion-conun_b_368982.html

Dave Zirin
Sports correspondent for the Nation Magazine
November 24, 2009
The NFL's Concussion Conundrum

On Sunday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made a startling concession to medical ethics, one resisted by all of his predecessors. Goodell said that when a player sustains a concussion, teams will now be required to seek advice from "independent" neurologists. As the commissioner said on NBC's Football Night in America, "As we learn more and more, we want to give players the best medical advice. This is a chance for us to expand that and bring more people into the circle to make sure we're making the best decisions for our players in the long term."

There is a reason why this story made the front page of the New York Times. It marks a major change in policy and would be like the tobacco industry bringing the American Cancer Institute into its boardroom or Exxon Mobil stating that they needed more input from Greenpeace.

The official NFL line has always been that team doctors held no conflict of interest when evaluating players. The NFL said this despite the stories of former players suffering early-onset dementia at alarming rates and being told to "shake it off" as the ringing continued in their ears.

Former Commissioner Pete Rozelle ignored this issue even when players like the Colts' Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Another former commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, did the same, even when Hall of Fame center Mike Webster died at age 50, homeless and incoherent. It has even been said that Webster was suffering from dementia when he was still an active player in the league.

And Goodell continued to defend the system even though Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson, who suffered from concussions, said that his coach Bill Belichick bullied him back into games (something Belichick denies). There was still no action taken after the 2006 suicide of Eagles pro-bowler Andre Waters, 44, whose brain tissue was that of an 80-year-old with Alzheimer's. The absence of medical oversight has been nothing short of breathtaking.

Goodell has been forced to shift his stance because the issue has simply reached a tipping point. Fittingly, New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author of The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell wrote a blistering critique of the NFL's treatment of ex-players last month, in the magazine, and concluded, "In the nineteenth century, dogfighting was [also] widely accepted by the American public. But we no longer find that kind of transaction morally acceptable in a sport."

I'm going to guess that the NFL has let its subscription to The New Yorker lapse. But they do have to care what Congress, the NFLPA union and former players are saying. In a hearing last month, The House Judiciary Committee flayed Goodell under the hot lights. It played footage of Dr. Ira Casson, chairman of the NFL's committee on concussions, saying that there was no connection between football and brain injuries, which is like saying there is no connection between smoking and lung cancer. When Goodell commented that the health of retired players is a priority for the league, committee member Maxine Waters said, "We've heard from the NFL time and time again--you're always 'studying,' you're always 'trying,' you're 'hopeful.' I want to know what are you doing...to deal with this problem and other problems related to injuries?"

While Goodell dangled off the ledge, NFLPA union chief DeMaurice Smith felt no compunction to lend a hand, saying that the union "has not done its best in this area. We will do better."

Chester Pitts, a lineman and union rep for the Houston Texans, told the New York Times, "I don't want to call it forced, but it's been strongly urged because of the awareness of the issue these days. When you have Congress talking about the antitrust exemption and them calling them the tobacco industry, that's pretty big. But it's a good thing it's transpiring."

But the main reason this situation has reached crisis proportions, is that every Sunday we see evidence of the problem and now we are much more aware of the tragic consequences. On November 22, the two quarterbacks who ended last season in the Super Bowl, finished their games on the sidelines. Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers was captured on camera, glassy-eyed and attempting to follow a trainer's finger after taking a knee to the head. Kurt Warner of the Arizona Cardinals, who also took a shot to his head, denied having a serious injury. "I've had a couple minor concussions. Nothing that has been prolonged. Haven't had anything in a number of years," Warner said. There is simply no such thing as a minor concussion.

It's time for a change. A concussion is caused by a blow to the head and can happen to any player, on any play. Goodell, I believe, sees the handwriting on the wall: Brain damaged players and the perception of indifferent owners hold the potential to permanently damage the sport. But before we collectively pat his back, consider the task before him. Goodell and the league will now embark on an effort to sell a slickly packaged three-hour slice of Sunday violence while simultaneously "doing no harm" to its players. Can NFL doctors serve the league and uphold the Hippocratic Oath? Doesn't take a Mayan calendar to see that this will not end well.

Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

Brett Favre Graces Madden 09 Cover

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/04/brett-favre-gra.html

Brett Favre Graces Madden 09 Cover
By Susan Arendt April 25, 2008
Categories: Console Games

To celebrate twenty years on the virtual gridiron, this year's Madden won't feature a current football superstar, but instead is turning to an NFL legend: Former Green Bay Packer and There's Something About Mary star Brett Favre .

"Brett Favre is a perfect fit for the Madden NFL 09 cover, as he epitomizes everything the franchise has stood for the past 20 years - longevity, excellence, and a love of football," said Madden NFL 09's executive producer Dale Jackson.

Favre is certainly one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in the NFL. He's destined for the Hall of Fame, is the only three-time MVP in the league, and finished his 17-year career as the NFL's all-time leader in touchdowns, completions, attempts, yards and wins. The man was good at his job, is what I'm saying.

At the moment, Favre is retired, but recently told the Biloxi Sun Herald that he could "very well be enticed" to come back and play. Athletes pictured on past covers of Madden have shown an uncanny knack for getting injured shortly after the game's release -- creating the legend of the "Madden curse" -- so perhaps Brett should just stay retired.

Madden NFL 09 is due out for just about everything except the PC on August 12.