Lack Of Integrity And Accountability Under Roger Goodell

By Sarah Snebold on September 22, 2016

The character of the NFL is going downhill fast, thanks to the National Football League Commissioner, Roger Goodell.

The leadership of this organization is transient, as they choose when to hold players and all those within the league accountable. Goodell has proven to disregard critical issues that are apparent, such as domestic violence. Yet, in the instance of the Deflategate, Goodell takes the opportunity to voice on how wrong it is to cheat.

But, where is he when his players are caught in the act of violating women?

Roger Goodell

Roger Goodell (By Staff Sgt. Bradley Lail, USAF [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

As a woman, it is getting difficult for me to respect the NFL. This may be overdramatic, but as a consumer for this organization, I feel that I am then condoning domestic violence. Yet, this issue resonates with me to the core. With the standards of character that Goodell is setting for the NFL, how can I, or other women, support the organization?

I am in no way stating that everyone in the NFL condones or acts within domestic violence. However, I believe as the NFL commissioner, it is his duty to speak against these actions instead of assisting in hiding/covering the situation from the media.

Goodell is quite the contradicting character, by over punishing players such as Tom Brady to undermining important issues such as the Andrian Peterson and Ray Rice scandals. Do we really see cheating as more immoral than “violence” against women and children?

It is clear that the rules and standards for the NFL are not clearly set. The scandals drag on far longer than needed as Goodell decides what to do in the current situation. He changes the standards, as he desires, while the public argues about what should or should not be done. Where is the code of conduct?

To go over the contradicting actions of Goodell, let’s start with the Ray Rice scandal of 2014. Here, Goodell without a doubt exemplifies his poor leadership through a series of unfortunate actions. The incident occurred on February 15, 2014 where Rice and his then-fiancee, now-wife, Janay Palmer, were arrested, charged and released from jail after a “minor physical altercation” (claimed by Rice’s attorney) at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City.

However, the situation was much more serious than initially described. On February 19, video footage from the elevator camera emerged, showing Rice dragging Palmer from the elevator. Then, police obtained further video exhibiting Rice knocking Palmer unconscious. It was not until March 26 that Goodell addressed the Rice situation, saying that the league is aware of the incident, but, did not know whether there will be discipline, saying “we will let the facts dictate that.”

On July 24, Rice received discipline of a two-game suspension by the NFL, similar to two other incidents by former Ravens cornerbacks Cary Williams and Fabian Washington. The former received a two- and the latter a one-game suspension for first-rime offenses of domestic violence.

On August 28, Goodell admits fault in his decision making.

“I take responsibility both for the decision and for ensuring that our actions in the future properly reflect our values,” Goodell said. “I didn’t get it right. Simply put, we have to do better. And we will.”

See the full timeline of the Ray Rice situation through SB Nation.

Ray Rice

Ray Rice (By U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Benjamin Hughes/Released [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Yet, since then, nine other players have been accused of domestic violence with few receiving any consequences: Greg Hardy (Carolina Panthers), Ray McDonald (San Francisco 49ers), Quincy Enunwa (New York Jets), Jonathan Dwyer (Arizona Cardinals), Junior Galette (New Orleans Saints), Josh McNary (Indianapolis Colts), Bruce Miller (San Francisco 49ers), Rodney Austin (Detriot Lions) and Ray McDonald (Chicago Bears).

Only two players were released, Ray McDonald and Rodney Austin, and Greg Hardy was deactivated. See the list and all arrests within the NFL here.

It is clear that domestic violence is still a prevalent issue in the NFL. Although Goodell now claims to enact “zero-tolerance” towards this, he has proven to conduct much more exhaustive investigations on other matters, such as the Deflategate. In the cases of domestic violence, most are dropped, thus allowing the NFL to slide on disciplining their players.

I support the law “innocent until proven guilty,” but there is a clear pattern here, with these accusations occurring time and time again, and ending with the same results. I believe actions speak louder than words, and Goodell’s clearly indicate that he determines Tom Brady deflating footballs as a much larger issue than multiple persons within the NFL, both past and present, enacting domestic violence.

However, despite using an exhaustive investigation, their efforts were not, “properly expended” as some criticize, due to it seeming, “as if the NFL concluded based on a flawed presumption that the Patriots cheated, then used flawed assumptions to ignore the scientific explanation for the true PSI numbers.”

See Mike Florio’s full critique here.

If the NFL cannot run an investigation properly on a number one concern, it is easy to assume the fault in those for lower priority issues. As a woman and football fan, all I ask is for some more integrity. I am tired of feeling self-inflicted as a consumer of the NFL, and watching the hypocrisy of the NFL “supporting” domestic violence and other issues that ails us such as breast cancer.

Goodell, prove to us through leadership that this is a concern and a priority. Public statements for raising the public perception of the organization and other political reasoning are not enough. Why must it take drastic events such as the video footage of Ray Rice dragging his fiancee’s limp body out of the elevator to draw the slightest response from Goodell and the NFL?

I am not the first, and certainly not the last, to raise this concern and criticism of Goodell. However, I urge us all as consumers of the NFL to insist on higher integrity from the organization. 

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