NFL 2014 - 2015 Season Thread

That just doesn't make sense to me. Who was ever going to blame the Ravens for Ray Rice hitting his wife in a casino in another state? Cut/deactivate him the day the first video comes out (like the Dwyer arrest this week) and the responsibility rightfully falls only on Rice. Why this Watergate shit and the really dumb job offer? I think most people would have even accepted the due process thing if they kept him on the team but perhaps not on the field.

Like the coverup is always worse than the crime, and even moreso when there is no fucking point to covering something up. Shame on Ozzie Newsome especially. Wasn't he more or less universally respected in football before this? Hope it was worth it.

Robert Baratheon_sl said:

Like the coverup is always worse than the crime, and even moreso when there is no fucking point to covering something up. Shame on Ozzie Newsome especially. Wasn't he more or less universally respected in football before this? Hope it was worth it.

Click to expand...

Well, he was a front office executive with the Browns before they moved to Baltimore...

Chanur_sl said:

Goodell sounds like a real douche.

Click to expand...

There is no doubt; but from what I was able to tell, the NFL's revenue has increased like almost 70% since he became commissioner, from 6 billion in 2007 (he started in 06 I believe) to almost 10 billion last year.

So he may be an inconsistent douche willing to cover up bullshit for his buddies, but the people who decide whether he stays or goes are seeing that profit arrow rocketing up under his watch and thinking, yep, he ain't going anywhere.

Now, if revenue tanks this year, due to outrage over the Ray Rice cover up causing a decline in ticket/gear sales, sponsorships, investors pulling out, etc, THEN we see Goodell decide to step down, no doubt about it. He is there to make sure the NFL keeps making more and more money, and that he has done quite well.

Faltigoth_sl said:

There is no doubt; but from what I was able to tell, the NFL's revenue has increased like almost 70% since he became commissioner, from 6 billion in 2007 (he started in 06 I believe) to almost 10 billion last year.

So he may be an inconsistent douche willing to cover up bullshit for his buddies, but the people who decide whether he stays or goes are seeing that profit arrow rocketing up under his watch and thinking, yep, he ain't going anywhere.

Now, if revenue tanks this year, due to outrage over the Ray Rice cover up causing a decline in ticket/gear sales, sponsorships, investors pulling out, etc, THEN we see Goodell decide to step down, no doubt about it. He is there to make sure the NFL keeps making more and more money, and that he has done quite well.

Click to expand...

Generally it's a bad idea to keep a figure in power when your main audience know's they're a corrupt scum bag. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out though.

Famm_sl said:

Every time you think there can't possibly be more to this story:

ESPN: Rice Believes Ravens Owner Tried To Bribe Him In Coverup Attempt

Click to expand...

Go SJWs, go!!

As to Goodell, I dunno about Bill Simmons anymore. Before this recent mess, he was on the warpath on how he's the worst commissioner in sports, citing as evidence how much players hated the ownership during the strike (err, it's the internet era, there is no consensus reality - see all politics). Now with this new batch of problems, he writes:

"Meanwhile, Roger Goodell is handling this entire month like an overwhelmed bartender who falls 10 drink orders behind, can't handle the rush, and finally decides to hide in a backroom until customers start leaving. And you know what? I think the owners love it. As long as people are discussing Goodell's many inadequacies, nobody is talking about the 32 owners who run the league and order him around. Baltimore's owner clearly lobbied Goodell last summer to take it easy on Ray Rice because Ray Rice is a good guy and Ray Rice made a mistake. Minnesota's owners clearly botched their Peterson decision, then had to do a 180 once sponsors started ditching them. But it's much easier to blame Goodell than the owners, even though he works for them and obviously can't think for himself."

Why don't people get this? Goodell is a fucking puppet, by design. Ray Rice told Goodell and Co. exactly what happened, and Bisciotti told Goodell "It was a non-premeditated, first time offense. Go easy on him." Goodell punished accordingly, and then the video got loose, and they said. "This looks bad. No facts have changed, but this looks bad. Throw the book at him to cover our previous decision."

Goodell is an incompetent "Health of the League" commissioner. He's an exceedingly effective business leader. The owners only hired him for the latter, so until public opinion gets truly toxic, I don't know why anyone thinks the former matters.

Edit:

Famm_sl said:

Every time you think there can't possibly be more to this story:ESPN: Rice Believes Ravens Owner Tried To Bribe Him In Coverup Attempt

Click to expand...

During the Favre-to-Rodgers debacle, the Packers offered him a long-term-endorsement/front-office deal as well. It's not "Bribery", it's "We still want you on our team, we just can't have you on the field anymore." Players almost never bite at those offers, as they still think they can perform. They're almost always wrong.

Even the BBC is getting the news out about how terrible Roger Goodell is as commissioner. Pretty entertaining.

Some random thoughts...

It makes no sense that Rice told the exact truth on what happened. I don't know why people that were so quick to condemn him for abuse are just as quick to believe his story on what he told his team and the league. Some people won't return an extra dollar a cashier mistakenly gave in incorrect change and somehow Rice isn't going to try to spin this in his favor when $250k per game is at stake? I doubt his fiancee told the exact truth for various reasons (intimidation, money/future earnings, genuine forgiveness, whatever). I also don't think the Ravens and the NFL went hard at Rice to get to the truth.

And why would anyone believe anything Rice says now? His friends probably don't want to be seen with him. He expected to only miss 2 game checks and now will never see another NFL dime. He has zero earnings potential. He can't even work the local 7-11 because there will be protestors the minute he starts his first shift. The "bribe" sounds an awful lot like someone blowing smoke up Rice's ass about the situation rather than "you're fired, GTFO of here." I give it six months before Rice gets divorced (better to have a judge rule now while he probably still has some money) and Janay goes on Oprah.

No one seems to talking about how extraordinary these situations are. Take AP - his father was sentenced to 10 years for laundering drug money (and what did he do that he wasn't convicted for?). His half-brother was murdered the night before the NFL combine. A son he never knew about for 2 years was beaten to death only a few weeks after he found out about him. The one baby-mama is a stripper. One baby-mama(?) claims he might have up to 7 kids out there. The rules were probably bent for him in high-school and college. His coach will run him 30 times into a literal ton of linemen and linebackers who want to kill him and then tells him he's going to do it 40 times next game because that's the only way the team can win. Some women are probably trying to get pregnant by him solely to get those child support checks. AP's first ever paycheck may well have been his million dollar+ signing bonus check. This doesn't excuse the abuse by AP or Rice, but I highly doubt that those commenting about it ever had to live in a world where women sign up for a service that will text them when famous people are spotted out in public.

Goodell's role is to be the "bad cop" against whatever faction the owners want to hide from. NFLPA during collective bargaining, player discipline, owner misbehavior (like Vikings owner Wilf and the $84.5 million judgement against him), concussion lawsuits, and media backlash like this.

Faltigoth_sl said:

There is no doubt; but from what I was able to tell, the NFL's revenue has increased like almost 70% since he became commissioner, from 6 billion in 2007 (he started in 06 I believe) to almost 10 billion last year.

So he may be an inconsistent douche willing to cover up bullshit for his buddies, but the people who decide whether he stays or goes are seeing that profit arrow rocketing up under his watch and thinking, yep, he ain't going anywhere.

Click to expand...

The league was trending up regardless of who was going to be commissioner. I'm not going to say he didn't have any part of that, but it was going to happen.

He's a good front man and is taking the hits for the owners, but he continues to bungle everything. A lightning rod is supposed to protect the building when it's struck, not set the building on fire and make things worse.

edit: I wonder if ESPN is going hard at it because of the way tv contract negotiations went. I seem to remember a good number of MNF games last season being pretty crappy matchups compared to NBC's SNF. The NFL is big, but the mouse is going to win.

Sutekh_sl said:

Generally it's a bad idea to keep a figure in power when your main audience know's they're a corrupt scum bag. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out though.

Click to expand...

Seems to work fine for FIFA

Goodell is a douchebag puppet who sucks at his job.

NFL Owners May Be Overvaluing Goodell | FiveThirtyEight

Roger Goodell failed, just like he was supposed to - SBNation.com

Urlithani_sl said:

edit: I wonder if ESPN is going hard at it because of the way tv contract negotiations went. I seem to remember a good number of MNF games last season being pretty crappy matchups compared to NBC's SNF. The NFL is big, but the mouse is going to win.

Click to expand...

They NFL mentioned they wanted SNF to be the big game of the week instead of MNF, which is the reason ESPN was given MNF. They would never have their main primetime game be on cable over a major network

Steelers To Wear Patch Honoring Victims Of Ben Roethlisberger | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Rengak_sl said:

Goodell is a douchebag puppet who sucks at his job.

NFL Owners May Be Overvaluing Goodell | FiveThirtyEight

Roger Goodell failed, just like he was supposed to - SBNation.com

Click to expand...

I think that FiveThirtyEight article explains why Goodell has been so aggressively pursuing European expansion and adding games to the regular season, with the slowdown in franchise value increase and whatnot. He thinks that the NFL can't squeeze any more money out of the US - despite it turning into a near year round event now with the crazy draft / combine coverage, and to keep it growing it needs to catch on somewhere else or take up even more of the year. As usual, all about the money.

Jovec_sl said:

Some random thoughts...

It makes no sense that Rice told the exact truth on what happened. I don't know why people that were so quick to condemn him for abuse are just as quick to believe his story on what he told his team and the league. Some people won't return an extra dollar a cashier mistakenly gave in incorrect change and somehow Rice isn't going to try to spin this in his favor when $250k per game is at stake? I doubt his fiancee told the exact truth for various reasons (intimidation, money/future earnings, genuine forgiveness, whatever). I also don't think the Ravens and the NFL went hard at Rice to get to the truth.

Click to expand...

Why would he lie about what happened when it was all caught on camera?

Ambiturner_sl said:

Why would he lie about what happened when it was all caught on camera?

Click to expand...

Because he's stupid?

I mean, I'm not saying he DID lie, but it's not like it's some crazy supposition with these idiots.

Grimmlokk_sl said:

Because he's stupid?

I mean, I'm not saying he DID lie, but it's not like it's some crazy supposition with these idiots.

Click to expand...

Ozzie Newsome said he didn't lie, Ozzie and the Ravens have everything to gain by claiming Rice lied to them, yet Ozzie who was in the room claimed Rice didn't lie. Makes no sense to me that he lied when a man who had everything to gain by saying Rice lied turns around and says Rice told the truth.

Same man who tried to bribe him?

When it comes to the Ravens it's safer to just assume they did whatever was dirtiest. They're horrible monsters.

Newsome does have reason to lie if he's trying to deflect blame back to Goodell, given the timing of his statement. Newsome can say Rice said he hit her and that's what the video shows, while the league can say that Rice said he hit her but not to the severity shown. Half-truths by all involved to support their positions.

I think Rice originally said he hit her. Probably something along the lines of "we were fighting, we were both angry, I lost my temper and struck her. Unfortunately she hit her head on the wall and was knocked unconscious." I doubt he said "I struck her once, she came towards me again, so I unloaded, knocked her out cold, and sent her flying backwards into the wall. Then I just stood over her body before dragging her halfway out of the elevator." I doubt the Ravens or league pressed him on how hard he hit her, what type of blow it us (leaving ambiguity as to it being a hard slap instead of punch), or how many times. Each side hears what they want to hear.

Then again, it's entirely possible Rice told everyone exactly what happened, they all high-fived each other around the room as they watched the video, and Goodell said that while he couldn't make it all go away, they could spin it down a minor 2 game suspension and he'd prevent the truth and video from ever becoming public. This is essentially what the media is pushing.

Grimmlokk_sl said:

Same man who tried to bribe him?

When it comes to the Ravens it's safer to just assume they did whatever was dirtiest. They're horrible monsters.

Click to expand...

No, that was the owner not Ozzie.