Van Natta on Roger Goodell

Since we hammered out a lot of keystrokes on Peter King's profile of Goodell, I think it's worth discussing this one as well. Have at it.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/page/RogerGoodell/game-rules

 

I'm nonplussed. Don't really feel like I learned much of anything except how great all the owners think he is. Most interesting part was:

Hall of Fame QB Terry Bradshaw was a guest on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." Bradshaw said any effort by the NFL to demonstrate concern for the health and well-being of former players is driven mainly by worries about the litigation and the public relations impact. "They're forced to care now because it's politically correct to care," Bradshaw told Leno. "Lawsuits make you care. I think the PR makes you care." When Goodell heard Bradshaw's comments, he "went ballistic," one source said. A video clip of Bradshaw's comments appeared on "The Tonight Show's" website, but his NFL remarks were not included.

In September the NBC Sports Network planned to run a piece produced by Sports Illustrated about spouses and caregivers of retired players. But in an email written a week before the piece was to air, a person involved in the production told a colleague "the NFL went nuclear and was trying to get it killed." Sources at both the NFL and NBC say they were not aware of any contact between them about the story. Ultimately, say SI and NBC, they had a disagreement about whether the piece should air. It never did.

Just goes to show he is really the Obfuscator in Chief, but even that we should know from Alan Schwarz's stories about how the league tried to get the New York Times to get off their case.

I guess the exclusive Bountygate documents were the big scoop here but it didn't seem like even the writer or the mag thought much of it given the low priority they placed on it in the story.