Goodell Drops the Ball on Favre

Yesterday was a new low point for the NFL and its dictatorial commissioner Roger Goodell. In a season that has given us ample reason to question his abilities as commissioner, Goodell’s pathetically impotent slap on the wrist punishment of Brett Favre was his ultimate failure leadership.

Here’s a question commissioner, does the term “cop-out” mean anything to you? Does it feel good to selectively mediate justice depending on how much angst there is on TMZSPN?

If I understand King Roger correctly, Favre was not suspended because the league did not have sufficient evidence to prove he sent the now infamous “illicit” text messages to a female NY Jets employee. Which I find kind of funny since four months ago Goodell felt perfectly comfortable suspending Ben Roethlisberger for 25% of his season with likely less evidence than he had on Favre. Good luck explaining this one commissioner.

Let me start of by clarifying two things.

First, I am not a member of the group that rips Favre for his annual off season retirement waffling. It’s his option to play football as long as somebody out there is willing to give him a job and there is no requirement that he make a definitive decision before training camp starts. The NFL is a more interesting league with Favre in it and I give the man his full props for an all time great career.

My honest feeling notwithstanding is that Favre did not want to play this year but the Vikings talked him in to returning. That’s two straight years that the now unemployed Brad Childress begged Favre to play. That plus $20 Million in cash can be pretty compelling to one’s ego.

Second, I have resisted the anti Steeler conspiracy talk that is being shouted throughout the Steeler nation. I do not believe the commissioner of the NFL has it out for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The league clearly is trying to legislate a certain level of physicality out of the game and the Steelers are one of the most physical teams in the NFL. So they are going to bare a larger portion of the burden.

That is not to say I’m happy with the league’s witch hunt of James Harrison or its blatant failure to protect Big Ben on the field. There have clearly been some highly questionable calls and even more so non calls in Steeler games this year. All of which is a topic for another blog.

That said, there is little doubt in my mind that Goodell caved to the monster that is Favre’s reputation in this pathetically juvenile incident. The fact that he did not have the guts (not the word I would prefer) to suspend a retiring QB on a bad team is shocking in both its impotency and hypocrisy.

First off, this is not going to turn in to a defense attorney’s brief on Big Ben. I have covered that topic ad naseum in previous blogs. My opinion on Ben has never changed. He acted like an ignorant jerk but that’s not illegal in this country. In a he said/she said situation, I default to the police and a motivated district attorney saying there is not sufficient evidence to even consider a charge. They also mentioned, “we prosecute crimes, not morality.”

Based on that I concluded that Ben should continue as the QB of the Pittsburgh Steelers and should not be suspended. It’s a scary world we live in when a person’s livelihood can be taken away over unsubstantiated accusations. That said I reluctantly accepted the suspension for two reasons; I felt there was probably more to the story than we knew and that it would be the slap in the face Ben needed to turn his life around.

So be it.

Clearly Goodell felt in Ben’s case he COULD legislate morality. He was clear to point out that his powers as commissioner are not reliant on criminal findings. I agree with him to a point. I can be suspended or fired from my job for detrimental conduct even if that conduct is not illegal. I just found the punishment inconsistent given numerous other players who committed crimes and are still on the field, including one other player with a pending rape charge.

With the Favre situation you can scrap the term “inconsistent” above and replace it with “hypocritical and self serving.”

Let’s be clear on this. Favre deserves the same benefit of the doubt that we demanded for Ben. You are innocent until proven guilty in this country. And just like Ben he got it. He’s not going to jail. That’s the extent of innocent until proven guilty; you do not have your personal freedom taken away through incarceration without definitive proof of a crime.

Let’s be just as clear on this. Many people made and continue to make conclusions on Ben based on nothing more than the inconsistent testimony of two drunk college girls. This includes media people with tremendous ability to influence public opinion; some of whom never let facts stand in the way of a good story. In Favre’s case, there is far more compelling electronic and pictorial evidence of what he did that’s being swept under the table.

There is some pretty significant circumstantial evidence here that makes any reasonably intelligent person believe Favre sent those texts. His refusal to publically defend himself is at the top of the list. If I were faced with similar accusations, I would go to every possible length to publically clear my name. There is no way I would allow my reputation to be annihilated like this without defending myself. And Brett Favre is about 10 Million times more famous than I am. His silence on this issue is deafening.

Add to that the fact that he has apparently obstructed the investigation at every turn and I think we can draw our own conclusions.

I agree that nobody can prove that Favre sent those pictures and I agree that if this were about whether or not he should go to jail, that would be the end of the story. It’s not. The issue here is whether Favre should be allowed to play QB in the NFL which is a privilege not a right. Simply put, if Big Ben can be suspended four to six games based on unsubstantiated accusations, Favre absolutely should be suspended one game for blatant and juvenile sexual harassment.

Remember, it’s Goodell who set the precedent by suspending Ben without evidence or charges. Once he did that the door was open for him to suspend Favre. There are plenty of situations where a reasonable person can make conclusions that would not be acceptable in a legal setting and this is one of them. If it turns out he’s wrong, what was the ultimate cost to Favre? He would lose one NFL game in 20 years, a game he should not be playing in anyway.

Instead Favre pays a fine which is, to quote Eddie Murphy in Coming to America, pocket change.

So why did Goodell and his cronies back down? For my money, two reasons. First, they don’t want to tangle with Favre and his legendary reputation. I don’t know why but they continue to cow tail to this guy even now that he’s been exposed to some degree as a media fraud. It’s no different than the high soccer school coach who suspends some poor bench warmer for drinking but looks the other way when a star player does the same thing (purely hypothetical of course).

Second, I believe that Goodell’s over reaction in Ben’s case had a lot to do with the immense media scrutiny that resulted from it. For reasons I dare only speculate, the talking heads at TMZSPN did not make nearly as big a deal of the Favre story as they did with Big Ben. Apparently the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network would rather run “BREAKING NEWS” alerts on whether Favre is going to start a meaningless game for a bad team rather than call him out for ignorant behavior. It’s interesting that they did not show such restraint for Big Ben, who lets face it, was never a media darling.

Look, there are worse things in this world than what Favre is accused of. If Ben actually did what he were accused of, it would be far worse. And I’m sure Favre is not being well received on the home front for this. In the end, one dumb text message may cost him millions of dollars (see Woods, Tiger).

And I’m not asking for the law to lock Favre up and throw away the key. I’m just asking the commissioner to be consistent with his punishments. I’m asking him to take the same proactive and dictatorial stance on a beloved media icon that he took on a player who did not always conduct himself admirably the last few years. I’m asking him to stop running his league at the behest of ESPN.

Apparently I’m asking too much.