He has one job and only one job and that's to make the owners money.
That's sort of an oversimplification and he is the one who has trumpeted "protect the shield" while pissing off fans.
The 3 main points for this thread doesn't really add up the NFL is freaking things up.
It isn't just those three things, and it isn't just now and in the moment, this has been festering for a few years and it's not going to just get better.
Fans aren't happy? Is it with Goodell or the players that they aren't happy?
The percentage of players that are freaking up compared to society at large would surprise you...I believe I heard that .5% or less were in any type of trouble. Much less than society at large...too early for me to start attaching links.
It absolutely is lower than society at large it's unfortunate that they get such bad press but then they're in the spotlight much more than your average Joe.
There are 2 issues affecting the popularity of the game right now from what you read from fans. Over saturation of the game on national TV. And the players and their protests.
OldSchool I agree with you on the players union and have said they share blame, and I this Smith is a dumbass.
I also agree with you and Champ that the percentage of crimes committed is lower than the general public. Without looking I'm going to guess that it's higher than average in their financial demographic. But that isn't the point, you are right they get a lot of media coverage when they slap a woman around, or cheat and we end up with Spygate or a guy gets caught using steroids. Then when they sit for 4 games or get a slap on the wrist and go back to making millions it irritates the "Average Joe" who doesn't have a chance to make that kind of money and would get in more trouble if they did the same thing.
However, I disagree with your claim that there are only two things affecting the popularity of the game, and there is a serious and in depth study which I have quoted previously. The lousy refs/too many penalties, the protests, too many commercials/length of games and over saturation are the big 4. (Mark Cuban was partly correct). And each of those are all somewhat close in the "percentage of fans upset about......." so it's not just one thing. It's a bunch.
The NFL is suffering from serious image issues aside from the protests, and was suffering from them well before the protests. They have had a shitstorm in the last several years and media scrutiny has increased while that storm has continued. It didn't have to happen this way, the person tasked with managing the league, and not just "one job make owners more money" has been fucking up at his job too often. I won't list the issues again, I mentioned some in the original post.
But I'll say this right now.
The NFL will enact a policy, exactly like the NBA has had for years and years, requiring every player and member of the teams staff to stand in an orderly fashion for the National Anthem. They should have already done it IMO. After they do that NOTHING about the popularity of the game or the TV ratings will change much IMO. People will still be pissed about the host of other things. The NFL has that many things about it to dislike.
Yeah it's profitable like nobody's business, but that's because of the TV contracts and the fact that owners are ripping fans off at the stadium. Profitability and popularity can be on the same arc, and that's good. But when they are on different arcs that's fraught with danger.
