I know most posters won't read all of this but it's well said and I agree with an awful lot of it. Maybe the discussion IS being framed by the players union to put the pressure and spotlight on Goodell to remove the pressure and spotlight from Rice.
One never knows I guess.
I underlined parts I thought were the most interesting
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http://elitedaily.com/sports/bill-simmons-part-of-the-problem/771343/
Bill Simmons is a great journalist; he looks at sports and social issues from a different point of view than most people do. Usually, he is on point and makes sense; however, his latest take on Roger Goodell is borderline delusional.
Bill Simmons has now been added to the list of people and companies that have used the magnificent tool of overreacting and puffing their chest to gain attention.
Just a quick note: If, in fact, Roger Goodell either a) saw the video, or b) refused to watch the video, then I agree with everyone calling for his job.
However, until there is sufficient evidence to support either of those claims, all of these people need to go back into their cones of silence and wait for the next big scandal to happen.
Does Bill Simmons (and everyone else for that matter) not realize that the more he harps on and accuses Roger Goodell of wrongdoing, the more change he brings to the narrative and takes away focus from the real issue?
Ray Rice hit his fiancée with a left hook that would make Mike Tyson proud. This hasn’t even been talked about in three weeks.
People now want to focus on the scandal instead of the sickening crime that occurred. Why? Ray Rice got fired and it’s no longer a sexy story for the media. It’s a travesty, really.
Why is it that, in this country, someone can commit such a brutal, horrific crime, yet somehow we blatantly try to find someone else to blame? Bill Simmons is guilty of this, along with many, many other journalists.
Did Goodell hit Janay Rice? Did Goodell spit on her? Did Goodell drag her limp body out of an elevator like a sack of potatoes? No! Ray Rice did that, yet everyone wants to focus on what the commissioner may or may not have known or requested to punish Ray Rice.
Why is that the issue here? As sickening as it is to say, Roger Goodell gave Ray Rice a punishment that fit his sentencing of the judicial system. Ray Rice got into a diversionary treatment sentencing that is given to less than 1 percent of people. This is usually given to judges and political officials.
Why is Bill Simmons not calling for the DA or the judge who gave Ray Rice the preferential treatment? I will tell you why: They have nothing to do with sports. If he starts harping on them, he will need a political show and won’t be able to correlate it to sports, which will make him irrelevant.
Roger Goodell made a mistake in only suspending Ray Rice for two games. He has admitted that mistake and said countless times he got it wrong.
The biggest bozos in this entire thing, besides Ray Rice, are these ex NFL players (Mark Schlereth and Tedy Bruschi, I’m looking at you) who are calling for Goodell to resign. They claim that players make mistakes all the time, and they get punished.
Yeah, that’s true. Their mistakes are typically “accidentally” ingesting steroids, “accidentally” beating their wives, “accidentally” driving with a .24 BAC or “accidentally” shooting off guns.
These are all “mistakes” that directly involve them maliciously doing something that will affect or hurt other people. Roger Goodell didn’t hurt anyone. Again, he isn’t the one who knocked out a woman in an elevator.
DeMaurice Smith (head of the NFLPA) is probably the greatest magician behind this whole scandal. You haven’t heard one word from him because he has to defend Ray Rice, and try to get him his job back.
His instructions have been to all current and former players to call for the commissioner’s job because that takes the spotlight off of Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald and Jonathan Dwyer, who are accused (guilty of) beating up women.
DeMaurice Smith is paid to defend these guys and get them their jobs back. Any media outlet or talking head (Simmons) who partakes in this nonsense that suggests this is Roger Goodell’s fault is just playing into the larger coverup.
That coverup is the passing of the buck to try and get someone else to take the fall for a professional athlete knocking a woman unconscious.
Do I think Bill Simmons should be fired or suspended? Absolutely not. He is more than allowed to speak his mind and express his opinion. I just wish that, as someone I looked up to when it came to sports, he wouldn’t be so quick to join the blame game party.
People listen to him and are swayed by his opinion. The more he talks, the more people forget why we’re actually appalled. This doesn’t start or end with Bill Simmons, either.
All of these sponsors and women’s organizations who are calling for the commissioner’s job or issuing statements are also guilty of this front-running mentality.
Why was it completely okay for NOW (National Organization for Women) to not say anything about Roger Goodell’s job status until they saw the video from inside the elevator? Isn’t that exactly for what they are upset with Goodell? He didn’t act until he saw the video, and neither did they.
The big money sponsors are the same way, coming out and saying they don’t like the state of the NFL. Notice how they didn’t even hint at pulling their sponsorships, though. They just wanted to pump up their chests while the NFL was backed into a corner.
The sponsors know the NFL will replace them in a heartbeat if they want out, probably for more money.
They’re kind of like the little guy yelling, “Hold me back, hold me back” in a four-on-one scuffle. These sponsors know the NFL is doing everything it can to get this right, but the sponsors want to boost their PR so they condemn the NFL in the most nonchalant way.
It’s a simple but complicated concept. The NFL is a corporation, and at the end of the day, it cannot circumvent the law as much as everyone wants it to or it will open itself up to a bunch of lawsuits.
Imagine you work for a Fortune 500 company and you break the law for the first time. You get a minimum punishment, such as anger management classes, and you then report it to your employer, who terminates you immediately.
You could sue the company for wrongful termination, and more than likely, you would win. Bill Simmons knows that Roger Goodell cannot circumvent the law and is walking a very slippery slope. He has done the best he could over the years to clean up the image of the NFL.
While he did get the two-game suspension wrong, I think the way he handled it after the fact has been perfect (assuming he didn’t see the video).
The more people like Bill Simmons who focus on Goodell, the more we forget about the savage that spit on and knocked a woman out for apparently no reason. Anyone who plays into that narrative ought to be ashamed, Simmons included.
