SI Asks: Can the NFL escape the depths of its own corruption?

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chevss454

chevss454

Data-driven decision-making is science and art.
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Sometimes, the corruption in an institution is so deep and so thoroughgoing that it becomes the life force of the institution. It is more than the cost of doing business. It is itself the business that is being done. Sometimes, the corruption in an institution is so positively endemic that it makes a sad mockery of Juvenal’s ancient warning—Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who guards the guards themselves?)—and Juvenal was a satirist by trade. But neither he nor Owen Roberts lived long enough to confront the writhing ball of snakes that is the National Football League. Put simply, the NFL has forfeited its credibility on just about any issue within an area code of morals and ethics.

http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/05/31/nfl-concussion-congress-roger-goodell



Video It’s time to finally move on from the circus that is Deflategate
 
chevss454 said:
Sometimes, the corruption in an institution is so deep and so thoroughgoing that it becomes the life force of the institution. It is more than the cost of doing business. It is itself the business that is being done. Sometimes, the corruption in an institution is so positively endemic that it makes a sad mockery of Juvenal’s ancient warning—Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who guards the guards themselves?)—and Juvenal was a satirist by trade. But neither he nor Owen Roberts lived long enough to confront the writhing ball of snakes that is the National Football League. Put simply, the NFL has forfeited its credibility on just about any issue within an area code of morals and ethics.

http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/05/31/nfl-concussion-congress-roger-goodell



Video It’s time to finally move on from the circus that is Deflategate
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I came here to post this very article and the very same quote that you did.

Wow. WHAT. A. READ.
 
aloyouis said:
I came here to post this very article and the very same quote that you did.

Wow. WHAT. A. READ.
Click to expand...

I remain, unfortunately, not very optimistic. But it's starting to seem as if forces might be at work. Not, I assume, for nothing, has this article shown up at this time.

At least, on this and on all fronts, it has been an overall good day.

Fingers still crossed and hoping to dare to hope.

Cheers, BostonTim
 
Jesus. That is well, well worth a click.

Charley Pierce used to write for the Herald and the man knows how to craft a coherent piece like few folks in the business. I'd rather jam an icepick into my eardrums that listen to him speak, but his writing is pure music.

Pierce isn't the first national writer to punch Roger in the balls, but I'm not sure anybody has done it with such style, eloquence and brute force.

It's going to happen. The owners are going to start freaking out and make Roger into a sacrificial lamb. This is great and I'm happy that the Patriots will play a role in all of this, but I'm not convinced it was anywhere near as influential as the CTE scandal will be.

I had my doubts over the winter. I thought maybe Roger had attached himself to the NFL machine like a barnicle and had made himself impregnable, but I'm convinced the die is cast and we'll see Goodell kicked out sometime over the next 24 months.

I feel so certain of this not because I feel like the NFL owners have decided that they need to start being better corporate citizens and their commissioner is a bad seed, but because they are predictable, greedy hogs who feel like Roger is getting in the path between them and the trough.

Click away folks. It was really something.
 
Thanks Chev great article!

~Dee~
 
I read it and it's succinct to say the least. Contrast Pierce with Peter King who's out stamping his foot and explaining why he won't say the word "Redskins" any more. Need some more media types to catch on.
 
Attaboy, Charley! :toast:

He got my attention when he wrote for the Phoenix, and I believe he always delivers eloquent and thought-provoking pieces, even though I don't always agree with his opinion.

This article is classic Pierce, and ranks as one of his best.
 
This was a great article. The analogy has been made many times by many people, but it deserves to be made again....NFL = Tobacco

This was one of my favorite segments:

Its commissioner, Roger Goodell, has been worse than incapable of handling the crisis. He’s actively constructed a Potemkin village of concern around it, an edifice of denial and deceit that is now crumbling inevitably to dust. The members of Congress don’t appreciate being hornswoggled by obvious incompetents; they see enough of that among their colleagues. Cutting-edge research scientists, the ones with intact ethical compasses anyway, don’t like getting hockled in their work by glorified marketing geniuses. I think the commissioner and his spin apparatus have messed with the wrong people this time around.
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Saw over the weekend that Marco Rubio was asked on one of the Sunday morning shows about his interest in becoming NFL commissioner. I think Rubio's a rat, but it's good to see someone in the media asking for someone else to take over.
 
Excellent read, and the comment section was telling as well (I suspect your average PFT troll was scared away by the big words).

I am not lying when I say my ability to continue to support this league is hanging by a silk thread running through a pair of scissors. I can imagine my fall Sundays without football.

I just can't turn a blind eye to the depth of the pit anymore. Shame on me that it took the league office deciding to pork my team as the factor that made me see the light. The best analogy to the current NFL I can see is the situation in boxing 20-30 years ago. They were still raking in cash by the truckload, but the stench or the corruption was becoming overpowering.

---------- Post added at 11:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 AM ----------
EasyBigFella said:
Saw over the weekend that Marco Rubio was asked on one of the Sunday morning shows about his interest in becoming NFL commissioner. I think Rubio's a rat, but it's good to see someone in the media asking for someone else to take over.
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I see Rubio as more weasel than rat, which makes him PERFECT for that job.
 
Darth Despot said:
Excellent read, and the comment section was telling as well (I suspect your average PFT troll was scared away by the big words).

I am not lying when I say my ability to continue to support this league is hanging by a silk thread running through a pair of scissors. I can imagine my fall Sundays without football.

I just can't turn a blind eye to the depth of the pit anymore. Shame on me that it took the league office deciding to pork my team as the factor that made me see the light. The best analogy to the current NFL I can see is the situation in boxing 20-30 years ago. They were still raking in cash by the truckload, but the stench or the corruption was becoming overpowering.

---------- Post added at 11:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 AM ----------



I see Rubio as more weasel than rat, which makes him PERFECT for that job.
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Great analogy.

The game didn't ruin itself. The hangers on that surrounded the athletes did.

I'm still convinced football can be saved.

Mandate form tackling. No launching. No lowering and leading with the head. Severe penalties for head shots. Suspensions. Fines. Missed game checks.

It'll take a brief time period to adjust, but they can.
 
I wasn't all that impressed.

Spare me all the high and mighty talk from those that earn their golden eggs from the very golden goose they criticize.

The idea that the NFL didn't want information to come out about concussions isn't a revelation.

Further, today with all the information readily available, high school football is still in many schools in the United States, very few college programs are shutting down and the NFL is thriving. I can't wait for the new season to start.

BTW, this is my laugh out loud quote:
The simple act of playing the game has been revealed as being so fundamentally destructive to the human organism that it now is impossible to believe that, if we knew then what we know now, the game ever would have been invented at all, let alone that children ever would have been allowed to play it.
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Nobody cared then. We can not juxtapose today values with those of yesterday. If players knew then, they still wouldn't care. 32 teams worth of players still play knowing full well that they can get hurt and their brains can get scrambled.

Now any time someone can stick a finger in the NFLs eye, I am all for it after this deflategate nonsense, but I am not sure on concussions that the NFL is the only culprit.
 
Wow, that was a great read, thanks Chevss.
Isn't Pierce the writer who wrote that book about TB? Moving the Chains?
 
subroc said:
I am not sure on concussions that the NFL is the only culprit.
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It isn't, more scrutiny needs to be placed on the HS and college levels. It's just the same old song and dance, "good and right"=deepest pockets and least connected/unified politically/socially.
Other sports also have issues, and again, little to no money coming in/attention= ok to do.
 
subroc concussions are only a small part of the issue. Repetitive head trauma is what leads to CTE, you could play 6 years of pee wee, 4 years of high school, 4 years of college and have a 10 year NFL career, never have a concussion and still have CTE.

If you bang your head into another head hundreds of times a week for 20 years you do damage. Football, by it's very nature, has a huge problem addressing this reality. Other sports have concussions and repetitive head traumas but what causes them is not integral to the game.

Hockey has done a lot to tweak the rules to avoid head shots, so has Lacrosse. If you eliminate headers in Soccer (already done for 12 and under) it would change the game some, but it would still be recognizable.

Football needs to come to terms with new equipment to protect the head. Maybe helmets will need to be bigger with alternating hard and soft shells to absorb impacts. Old timers will bitch about the Space Helmets but it may save the game, like the hard shell did when it replaced the leather helmet.

The problem is the NFL isn't interested in trying to fix the problem. Because it is, at it's core, a enterprise run by assholes, it chooses to try to keep the flaws a secret so they can't get sued by former players. Of course, when the conspiracy is uncovered they'll be sued anyway, this is the hubris, but they'll have had a few more years of profit.

The day is not far off where teams you never thought would be sold will be. The former owners will talk about the great run they had, spending more time with their trophy wives and inheritance planning, but what will really be going on it cashing out of a doomed business model and leaving the liability for some other rich dumbasses to pick up.
 
Darth Despot said:
subroc concussions are only a small part of the issue. Repetitive head trauma is what leads to CTE, you could play 6 years of pee wee, 4 years of high school, 4 years of college and have a 10 year NFL career, never have a concussion and still have CTE.

If you bang your head into another head hundreds of times a week for 20 years you do damage. Football, by it's very nature, has a huge problem addressing this reality. Other sports have concussions and repetitive head traumas but what causes them is not integral to the game.

Hockey has done a lot to tweak the rules to avoid head shots, so has Lacrosse. If you eliminate headers in Soccer (already done for 12 and under) it would change the game some, but it would still be recognizable.

Football needs to come to terms with new equipment to protect the head. Maybe helmets will need to be bigger with alternating hard and soft shells to absorb impacts. Old timers will bitch about the Space Helmets but it may save the game, like the hard shell did when it replaced the leather helmet.

The problem is the NFL isn't interested in trying to fix the problem. Because it is, at it's core, a enterprise run by assholes, it chooses to try to keep the flaws a secret so they can't get sued by former players. Of course, when the conspiracy is uncovered they'll be sued anyway, this is the hubris, but they'll have had a few more years of profit.

The day is not far off where teams you never thought would be sold will be. The former owners will talk about the great run they had, spending more time with their trophy wives and inheritance planning, but what will really be going on it cashing out of a doomed business model and leaving the liability for some other rich dumbasses to pick up.
Click to expand...

Could the solution be to get rid of helmets altogether?

I've heard others compare football to rugby and claim that rugby doesn't have the same injury issues. IIRC, the claim is that with no helmet, people keep their head out of harms way and with that protection they are more likely to not be as cautious.

I recognize the games are very different, but could there be some truth to that suggestion?
 
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