HOUSTON—There’s this poem by Maggie Smith. I’ve mentioned it before: It’s called “Good Bones” and it ends with the lines, “Any decent realtor/walking you through a real shithole, chirps on/about good bones: This place could be beautiful/right? You could make this place beautiful.”
Anyway, this sprung to mind as I listened to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell talk on Wednesday. He used to do his state of the league address on Friday of Super Bowl week, on the first day the teams were not available to the media, but you crash the car enough times, eventually you try something new.
So instead, the NFL stuck Goodell in the middle of the week, because saying screw-you to journalists is very popular in certain American circles at the moment, and the further the NFL can place its commissioner from the game, the better. A recent poll by Public Policy Polling put Goodell’s approval rating with the American public at 22 per cent favourable, versus 37 per cent unfavourable. Not great.
And as he droned on about everything but concussions — more than 43 minutes and he was not asked about concussions — your mind could be excused for wandering. What if? What would this thing be like if the commissioner had not pursued and jury-rigged an investigation into one of his star players allegedly deflating footballs, against all reason and provable evidence?
“We’re comfortable with the process and decision,” said Goodell, in response to one of the five questions about Deflategate. “It’s not as personal as some people like to make it.”
What would the NFL be like if the league didn’t hold cities for ransom for hundreds of millions of dollars for new stadiums, and as a result, saw San Diego, St. Louis, and potentially Oakland leave their cities for richer pastures after long associations?
“It’s a painful process,” said Goodell, in response to one of the questions about teams leaving their cities.
What would the NFL be like if the commissioner was asked about easing restrictions on marijuana in a league where one of the teams in the Super Bowl, the Atlanta Falcons, was recently revealed to have been worried about overzealous painkiller prescriptions in 2010, and instead of talking about how the salary cap had gone up, did something . . . else?
“We would love to engage,” said Goodell, shortly before the union tweeted that he didn’t need to change drug policy.
What would the NFL be like if, when asked about the Trump administration’s refugee ban that is roiling America and the world, the commissioner said something more than, “We are aware of the conversations that are going on, and the divisions. As commissioner of the NFL, I’m singularly focused on the Super Bowl right now”? What would it be like if the NFL offered more moral leadership than saying, everyone come together to watch the game?
What would it be like to have a commissioner with empathy, a positive vision, who made good decisions? Roger Goodell does this year after year, and it’s a lesson: Some powerful people just blunder along, lying and dissembling and creating their own realities, over and over. It exhausts the opposition, and it works because those powerful people have power, and a base of support. Unless that base crumbles.
But that’s not the world we live in, and when you have enough problems, even the biggest ones can get lost. On Wednesday there wasn’t a single question about concussions. Instead, there was Deflategate, franchise movement, and planted questions. They do that every year, and the most obvious one from the league’s Play 60 youth football winner. This year it was 13-year-old Sophie Schneider of Olathe, Kansas. Here is their exchange.
“Hi Roger, Sophie Schneider.”
“Thanks, Sophie, nice to see you again, how you doing?”
“I’m doing good, how are you?”
“I’m good, you ready for your big (moment)?”
“I think so. All right, my question’s going to seem a lot easier compared to all this madness. OK, the NFL sponsors the Fuel Up Play60 program. Thanks for that, by the way. What plans does the NFL have to keep promoting and supporting health and wellness in the next generation?”
“You and I talked about this in Kansas City two weeks ago, and as the father of twin daughters who are just a little bit older than you, 15, we believe very much in having our kids be active and healthy and living healthy lifestyles, and the Play 60 program was our way of involving our players and our clubs and the league to make sure we encourage that in our communities, and our schools. And so the leadership that you’re providing in your school, and others are providing, I think leads to a better generation that thinks better, achieves higher levels of success, and frankly lives a higher quality of life. For us, we’re not going to run on that, we think it’s something that authentic to who we are.”
The NFL also runs programs that push football in schools across America, by the way. In that PPP poll, by the way, the only number that really mattered was buried deep in the back end. They asked, Would you let your children or grandchildren play football? And 71 per cent said yes. Roger Goodell can stand up there and say anything he wants, but until the base abandons him, ain’t nothing gonna change.
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