As a father of a toddler, Wai Sallas sees too many similarities between the lessons of parenting and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
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There’s no stranger time period than the 10 months leading up the birth of your first child. Time has never moved faster and at the same time, it seems to slow down to a crawl. You fill your brain with all the dos and don’ts of parenting, but at the end of the day nothing prepares you for the wide-ranging spectrum of emotions and responsibilities that come with taking care of another human being.
You live and learn as the baby grows. You learn what works and what doesn’t, and you try and do what’s right for the baby. Somewhere along the way your self needs become a distant last. For all of us, there are just some days that feel like a lifetime.
We’ve all seen the parents, with the glazed eyes, pleading for someone to help, begging for someone to solve the rubrics cube of parenting. For those of us who’ve been there, there’s no special cheat code. What works for one parent, can have the opposite affect of another. After a while they just start throwing self-help book solutions at every problem, throwing caution to the wind as they throw Hail Mary after Hail Mary hoping for one toss to find its way to the end zone and provide sweet relief.
Ladies and Gentleman, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is that parent.
For the last 9 years, we’ve watched him wield punishment at his discretion. Whenever someone got out of line, they turned to “The Sheriff”, and ‘ol Rog galloped in on his trusty steed, laid down the law and rode off to the sunset.
Much like parenting, after every hurdle, comes another hurdle. You have to be quick, agile and, to borrow a football term, keep your head on a swivel.
A year after becoming commissioner and watching the league gain negative headlines due to the action of its players, he began to use his rod of discipline.
Adam Jones was suspended for the entire 2007 season, Chris Henry and Tank Johnson sat out eight games.
That same year, Goodell found his way out of “Spygate” and heard nary a peep from any critics.
In 2011, Goodell successfully maneuvered a lockout with the owners coming out on top.
In 2012, Goodell again found his way in scandal, and again he waved his disciplinarian stick and crippled the New Orleans Saints for an entire year.
Goodell seemed to have this commissioner thing down.
Then it happened.
Ray Rice flipped Goodell’s world upside down.
Sometimes, the things that worked before no longer have the same affect.
Goodell made one mistake and instead of learning from that mistake, he thinks the trick to solving the problem is just doing what he did before, but with more vigor. He suspended Rice for two games for a horrific offense. After everyone turned on him, he suspended him indefinitely. Weeks later, Adrian Peterson was caught in the crosshairs of child abuse claims. Goodell suspended him indefinitely.
Both Peterson and Rice appealed their suspensions, both appeals were won.
Not only are those defeats a victory for Rice and Peterson, they also further damage to Goodell’s ability to govern.
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Now another “-gate” comes into the fold, and much like the shell-shocked parent trying to find any solution that will work, Goodell is just throwing darts at a dart board in the hopes that he’ll hit the bull’s-eye in “Deflategate”.
In today’s Monday Morning Quarterback, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King provides some context.
As Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston pointed out Sunday, there have been two recent violations regarding fair play with footballs. One happened last November, when TV cameras at the Minnesota-Carolina game in frigid Minneapolis caught footballs being warmed up by sideline heaters. That’s a rules violation, but the teams were simply warned not to do it again. In 2012, the Chargers were found to be using towels with stickum on the sidelines, presumably for players to be able to grip the footballs better. The team was fined $25,000. Is the presumption that Brady was using footballs about 1 pound per square inch under the minimum limit worth a multigame suspension compared to the other two violations? The other two violations were proven. This one is “more probable than not,” according to the Wells report.
No suspensions. Just fines. The only difference is these events occurred pre-Ray Rice. Three years ago, Goodell was “The Sheriff” now he’s “That Parent.”
Today, Goodell suspended Tom Brady four games for conduct detrimental to the integrity of the league, which is like Lance Armstrong berating someone for using PEDs. Even a league-funded Ted Wells report provided no damning evidence, no smoking gun. Wells said, “it is more probable than not that New England Patriots personnel participated in violations of the Playing Rules and were involved in a deliberate effort to circumvent the rules.”
Probably? Hardly conclusive evidence.
To show you how far Goodell has gone off the spectrum of reason, he just suspended Tom Brady without any evidence double Rice’s initial suspension for knocking out his then-fiancée.
There’s no doubt, much like Rice and Peterson before him, Brady will appeal the suspension, and much like the two aforementioned players, Brady will win.
There comes a point in parenting where the light shines down upon you and you’re able to step away from the hurricane. Where you sit back scan the situation and make the best decision for you and your child. It’s not always the easiest, but you do it because in the long run you’re doing what needs to be done. Not because you want to do it, but because you have to do it.
Unlike parents, Goodell’s job is not for a lifetime, he’s just making it seem that way.
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Photo Credit: Seth Wenig/AP
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