Roger Goodell Should Go Ahead and Step Down as NFL Commissioner
If you have been living under a rock for the past year or so, the NFL and Deshaun Watson have been entrenched in a legal battle over the 20+ sexual assault accusations against the former Clemson quarterback. These allegations led to Watson sitting out all of last season and eventually being traded to Cleveland. Now, you would imagine that the punishment for such a lofty issue would be quite heavy. I wrote an article a little while back about a possible suspension timeframe, thinking there was NO WAY that the NFL could screw this up like they have so many times in the past. Roger Goodell can’t screw this one up, right?
How I couldn’t have been more wrong.
News broke today that the NFL has suspended Deshaun Watson for six games.
Six.
Yes, you read that right.
I just have so many issues with this. Let me point out a few of them for you here. First, it’s interesting to me that in this decision, former judge Sue L. Robinson, the disciplinary officer for this case, mandated Watson can only receive massages within the Browns’ organization from club therapists. Does no one have an issue with this? If you are only allowed to get massages from your team, literally nowhere else IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, maybe you should’ve been suspended a little longer than six games.
Next, let’s look at some of the other recent suspensions the NFL has passed out. DeAndre Hopkins received six games for PED use. We are now telling future NFL players they can have almost two dozen or more sexual assault accusations, but the suspension is just the same as popping one time for PED use. Basically, the same issue. No more, no less.
My favorite comparison, however, is the Calvin Ridley situation. The man was suspended for an entire year for betting $1,500 on NFL parlays. HE GOT AN ENTIRE YEAR. It is now a bigger deal to bet just over a thousand dollars while injured, than it is to have that many accusations.
To get back to my main point, the way Roger Goodell has handled this whole situation is laughable. The way he has addressed a lot of issues during his time as NFL Commissioner has been laughable. I will happily name a few.
- Greg Hardy case dropped from 10 games to four for nearly killing his GF.
- Ray Rice initially got two games for knocking out a woman in an elevator.
- Brett Farve getting no suspension for sexting a woman.
- I also want to add that former Steelers’ QB Ben Roethlisberger got six games for allegedly sexually assaulting one woman. One. And he got six games before it was dropped to four.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Well, Garrett, it isn’t like Goodell himself made this decision. You said it yourself; an officer made the decision. I say bullshit on that. Goodell has the power to overrule what an officer suggests a suspension should be. We have seen it before. The fact this creep got six games for allegedly assaulting 20+ women is disgusting. If we are going to offer precedent set before him, Watson should have gotten somewhere in the neighborhood of 96 games, which translates to just over five seasons. Is that dramatic, maybe? But I am just working with what we had before.
Roger Goodell will go to sleep at night tonight thinking he made the right decision with this Deshaun Watson issue. But fans and media members all over the globe right now are laughing at how this whole situation was handled. He has become a laughingstock and should seriously consider stepping down. His time has come to ride off into the pasture and let someone with more than four brain cells take over the league. It’s long overdue.
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