New Orleans Saints fans asked to keep all in perspective by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell knows he won't get many Christmas cards from New Orleans Saints fans this year, but popularity isn't the point. Closing out the NFL owners' spring meeting Wednesday in Palm Beach, Fla., Goodell said he understands the Saints' fan base is roiled by the severe penalties he imposed on the team. Nevertheless, he admonished Saints fans to put their crisis in context. His job calls on him to protect the integrity of the game, Goodell argued, and that was threatened by what he has painted as an isolated case of extreme lawlessness in New Orleans.

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Commissioner Roger Goodell indicated at the NFL owners' spring meeting Wednesday in Palm Beach, Fla., that he has a fondness for New Orleans, which has figured prominently in his career.
That club behavior, which the NFL insists featured on-field attempts to injure opponents, has become one of the biggest scandals in recent pro football history. It has spawned the harshest punishments ever meted out against coaches and executives, resulting in Coach Sean Payton's one-year ban from the game and General Manager Mickey Loomis' eight-game suspension. The unprecedented steps were imposed not only because of on-field transgressions, Goodell has made clear, but because Payton, Loomis and others treated the matter as a contemptible annoyance, dissembling for years and impeding the investigation.

What's more, more is to come, as Goodell reiterated punishments for specific players loom. He provided no clear timetable for the pending sentences, which are expected to involve suspensions and fines and will be crafted following consultation with the NFLPA and perhaps more individual players. NFLPA officials didn't respond to a request for comment.

The draconian punishments -- Goodell also suspended assistant head coach Joe Vitt for six games and stripped New Orleans of two second-round draft picks and fined the club $500,000 -- have left fans convinced the commissioner has a vendetta against Payton and the Saints, whose adherence to the NFL's rulebook and customs is sometimes cursory. In addition, Saints fans believe Goodell has drawn a false distinction between what transpired in New Orleans from 2009 to 2011 and what has long been an accepted tradition of under the table incentives in the NFL.

That is all fantasy, Goodell insisted Wednesday. In fact, he indicated he has a fondness for New Orleans, which has figured prominently in his NFL career, first when he helped the logistical morass that surrounded moving Super Bowl XXXVI back due to the 9/11 attacks the previous September, and then when he was one of former commissioner Paul Tagliabue's point people on the NFL's efforts to ensure the Saints stayed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

"Listen, I understand the frustration of the Saints fans, and I have great respect for them," he said. "We will be there with them for Super Bowl at the conclusion of this coming season. I worked very closely as we were getting the Saints re-established after the hurricane, so I saw first-hand the Saints' passion and their fans' passion. I clearly understand that frustration, but everyone has to understand that there are 32 teams, and everybody is going to have to operate by the same rules. If we don't do that, the integrity of the game, and what fans love about the game, will be impacted negatively -- and that is my responsibility."

In the wake of the scandal, the Saints' contingent in Palm Beach maintained a discreet presence, rarely being seen in the hallways of The Breakers. The meeting was an uncomfortable one for New Orleans, according to a league source familiar, but on the whole the support from other clubs was greater than the Saints officials expected upon arrival.

Still, there was one big exception to the Saints quiet participation. Payton spoke publicly Tuesday for the first time since the scandal broke, holding court in the hotel lobby and nurturing the story the Saints might hire his mentor, two-time Super Bowl champion Coach Bill Parcells, as an interim replacement.

That glamorous wrinkle provided another theme for the meeting, namely that Payton and Goodell are involved in some sort of testosterone brinksmanship. Goodell said he saw some media accounts of Payton's remarks, and that he welcomed Payton to the meeting Tuesday with a handshake, but the two didn't speak or meet.

Goodell was asked about that as the meeting closed, and he calmly denied it rankles him that the people he depicted as villains in the bounty scandal -- namely, Loomis and Payton -- now were orchestrating a high-profile courtship with a legendary figure to take over their crippled team.

"No," Goodell said, before once again making a point he mentioned when the meeting opened. "Again, ultimately the owner is going to have to make the final decision. They are suspended from operations during that period of time, but they are going to have to make decisions on how the Saints are going to be operated either as a group or however Tom Benson wants to do that."

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Looks like he's starting to feel the heat from Saints fans!

As Buddy would say he is a squirrel!!!

Roger goodell is a hypocrite, I understand that he wants to keep the game safe but he only punishes who he wants to, other teams have admitted to having bounties out on players and he doesn't bat an eyelid at them, just punishes our team

"The draconian punishments"

Excellent description.

Feeling the heat, I love it.

Goodell could care less about Saints Fans. He is sitting there in his office thumping his chest and telling his circle of cronies look at me, Ill show them whos in charge of things in this league, but when put in the public eye, tries to tell the saints fans what he thinks they want to hear. You can pour sugar all over a pile of BS, but you still have a pile of BS. We arent stupid Goodell.

....*Fart*....


That is all.

Translation: "Please don't shoot me come February"

I'd settle for a hot bowl of gumbo in his lap.
I still say he's deliberately waiting for Loomis and Payton to be out of the picture before announcing suspensions just to give his favorite city and team another dig. It's as close to a post season ban as he can do.

goodell asked by fans to DROP DEAD!!

Well Loomis isn't suspended until the first regular season game, so he can't wait that long.

or can he? :doh:

This douche-nozzle Goodell suffers from an acute case of narcissism. He begins every sentence with "I". "I was disappointed", "I was concerned", "I will give my ruling, "I" this and "I" that. This "Ayatollah with a tie" has never played football above the HS level. has never coached a damn thing, wouldn't know where to start being a GM of a NLF team. Yet through connections and ass kissing, he ends up as the reigning dictator of the greatest sport in world history wielding his authority like a banana republic despot. And he answers to no one. Goodell claims his harsh ruling is in the name of player safety, then 2 sentences later admits that New Orleans got his full wrath, not because of bountygate, but because they LIED to the great and power Oz and did not cooperate with HIS investigation.

Every coach and player in the NFL knows this Goodell ruling on "bountygate" is way too harsh. Yet the toughest word you'll ever hear any of them say is "surprised", because they are scared of Goodell's wrath and fear for their million dollar paychecks, and Goodell knows it.
Look at Warren Sapp. He got reprimanded for saying a close source told him Shockey was the bountygate snitch. The NFLN executives quickly told Sapp to STFU, or more nicely told him "You are only an analyst, not a reporter". And btw, Goodell is a NFLN founder, and he controls what goes on there too.

The NFL owners, coaches, and players need to decide if it's really healthy to have one man like Goodell in charge with unchecked powers. Dictatorships only work well for the dictator.

Should Sean appeal? really, really? Let me translate that for ya; Is Sean going to beg Goodell for mercy? That's the real question. Does anyone think Goodell is going to backtrack and lose face in front of the most publicized event in NFL history? No, he's not. He's walking around right now with a perpetual erection because he CAN'T WAIT to bring more attention to himself by stringing this drama out as long as he can. He's planning his next bomshell to drop on the players involved as soon as the smoke clears from the last bombshell. This narcissistic SOB is having the event of his career.

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18

... and it coudn't come soon enough.
OK, I feel better now.