EMIGRANT, Mont. -- Now there's a dateline I never thought I'd use: Emigrant, Mont. I came here Thursday at the invitation of Atlanta owner Arthur Blank to moderate a couple of football discussions for Falcons clients and suite-holders at Blank's Mountain Sky Guest Ranch. Now I know why the Spielberg family comes here for a week a year. No TV. No computers. I forded a creek on a horse Friday. ("Forded.'' Always loved that word. Never thought I'd actually do it.)
The case of Jonathan Vilma v. Roger Goodell is being tried on the Internet, in arbitrators' offices, and our court system. It seems like it is just about the Saints and the bounties they supposedly handed out: $1,000 for a cart-off, $500 for a knockdown, $250 for a bloody nose, $30 for anything requiring a Band-Aid.
Jonathan Vilma's lawsuit against Roger Goodell sets the table for a historic challenge to a historic commissioner.
Two months to the day after this bombshell of a story first exploded across the NFL, the final shoe finally dropped Wednesday in the Saints bounty scandal. And predictably, it landed with another loud, reverberating thud.
Saints bounty scandal 77, Patriots Spygate scandal 0.
PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight from the first full day of the NFL's annual meetings at that bastion of old money, The Breakers hotel...
After bringing the hammer down hard on the coaches, administration and future of the New Orleans Saints Wednesday, National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell clearly has one major job remaining in his discipline of those involved in the Saints bounty scandal: the players.
While the NFL's busy free-agent signing period and Peyton Manning's Magical Mystery Tour continue to dominate the headlines this week, still looming in the background is the pending outcome of the Saints' bounty scandal. League commissioner Roger Goodell has yet to mete out disciplinary measures to the coaches, players and team front-office executive identified two weeks ago as being either aware of or directly involved in the illegal pay-for-performance program that New Orleans operated from 2009-2011.
The effort to make pro football safer is fascinating. It reminds me of restaurants that only serve meat from animals raised responsibly in a free-range environment. It's a nice idea with good intentions, but I still wouldn't want to be the chicken.
The National Football League on Friday found the New Orleans Saints guilty of a wide-ranging system of bounty payments to between 22 and 27 defensive players from 2009 through 2011, and player-safety-conscious commissioner Roger Goodell could bring the hammer down very hard on the franchise.
Cedric Benson can't stay out of trouble. His impressive arrest record is more suited for COPS than the NFL. You might suggest any punishment commissioner Roger Goodell hands him, he deserves. Including the three-gamer Benson received last week. How many of us could take four arrests in three years -- two for assault, two for driving/boating while intoxicated -- and still find lucrative employment?
Feels like the calm before the storm a bit, doesn't it? With the 32 NFL owners meeting Tuesday in Chicago, we should know soon how close a labor deal really is, and whether Roger Goodell and the owners' negotiating team will have any real problems selling a new labor agreement to the owners.
Maybe it's because I'm an optimist. Maybe it's because when I left the Westend Bistro on the edge of Georgetown just before midnight Thursday, union board member Jeff Saturday and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell were deep in discussion in the bar, and not very happy to have been seen. Maybe it's because when Goodell and De Smith of the decertified players union spoke Friday night after negotiations broke down, neither strafed the other with the kind of verbiage that would be hard to take back.
DALLAS -- In the wake of the snippet in "Monday Morning Quarterback'' about commissioner Roger Goodell's comments regarding the lack of player support for Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, I issued a clarification on SI.com last night. I mistakenly inserted a parenthetical "Steelers'' in the middle of a Goodell quote, figuring he was talking about the Steelers in the quote. I erred, and apologize for it.
Roger Goodell stories in the SI Vault
CHICAGO -- Yet another prominent NFL quarterback is facing a potential violation of the league's personal conduct policy, and once again NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is ruling out nothing when it comes to any discipline he might hand down.
LOWELL, Mass. -- I've been thinking there's a strong likelihood the 2011 NFL season will be interrupted because the players and owners won't reach agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. And I'm not sure I've changed my mind. But two things happened in the past week that made me feel like there might not be a job action.
I won't defend Ben Roethlisberger. I would rather face an oncoming pass rush blindfolded than defend Roethlisberger. I wouldn't want him anywhere near my barstool, let alone my female friends.
ORLANDO -- In the end, logic and the weight of numbers won out. A modified sudden-death overtime proposal passed for the 2010 NFL playoffs by a surprisingly easy 28-4 vote by league owners Tuesday afternoon, backed by raw data and by a overtime reform convert, commissioner Roger Goodell.
The majority of NFL players believe commissioner Roger Goodell is doing an above-average job leading the league, according to a poll conducted by Sports Illustrated.
So here we go. The 28-week marathon to the Super Bowl is on. I leave for 21 days of camps tomorrow morning, and I'll try to set the table here with a few appetizers to get you ready for the 2009 season. Love this time of year.
According to multiple sources, the long-anticipated meeting between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and suspended quarterback Michael Vick occurred on Wednesday afternoon at a small security firm in Allendale, N.J., where both men were seen leaving the premises separately.
Plaxico Burress' representatives believe that Monday's adjournment of their client's trial until Sept. 23 clears the way for the 31-year-old free agent to sign with an NFL team. They are particularly optimistic that teams will be interested because the trial may be adjourned again until after the 2009 season.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did with his game officials Friday what a coach would do with a team of slumping but talented young players: He gave them a pep talk.
Roger Goodell sounded totally spent over the phone from Afghanistan, but he also sounded totally exhilarated at the same time. That's what taking a one-week trip to the twin war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan last week did for him.
With no football to play for the first time in 18 years, former pro Ross Tucker is passing the time reading about his favorite sport. What follows are a few links to NFL-related articles he found and his take on them.
There's so much good e-mail -- clearly one of the best e-mail weeks in the history of this column -- that I'm going to allow you to take it over. I'll just stay out of the way. On with the show:
Sen. Arlen Specter on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the New England Patriots' taping of opposing coaches' signals
NEW YORK -- So, is it over? Is the nine-month Spygate nightmare finally over?
IRVING, Texas -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we put a wrap on the marquee day of the NFL's annual pick-fest, from our vantage point of deep in the heart of Texas....
INDIANAPOLIS -- Spygate may be the story that never ends in the minds of fans and the media, but I'd say the NFL's Competition Committee is definitively over it. The league's governing body in terms of rules and regulations has been known to debate the most arcane issues for days or even weeks on end. The committee's attempts to define what constitutes illegal contact a few years back wound up just shy of involving forensic science.
• Also in this column: news from First Sergeant Mike McGuire.
As Roger Goodell nears his one-year anniversary as NFL commissioner, he's bugged that some members of the media describe him as a hanging judge who makes knee-jerk reactions and comes down hard on repeat offenders. "I don't like that,'' Goodell told SI.com in a wide-ranging, 60-minute interview in his Park Avenue office last Thursday. "I don't think I've been heavy-handed. 'Hanging judge' implies to me that someone has not been thoughtful or responsible in his actions, and I don't believe that's the case.''
All you need is one look at the personal conduct policy that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell handed down on Tuesday to know that the man isn't playing around. Along with slapping a season-long suspension on Tennessee cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones and an eight-game punishment on Cincinnati wide receiver Chris Henry, Goodell sent a blaring message to the rest of the league's teams, coaches and players. That statement wasn't just about a first-year commissioner flexing his muscles. It was about a first-year commissioner doing some serious educating.
SI.com: Strong statementupdated: Tue Apr 10 2007 15:47:00
Roger Goodell had a big decision to make Tuesday morning, but in the end it was a fairly easy one. Other than Tennessee miscreant Pacman Jones and his agent, who in the football world thought Jones didn't deserve a major whacking? Even Chris Henry, known more for getting arrested than for his considerable receiving talent in Cincinnati, knew he had a major suspension coming.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The punishment was aimed squarely at Adam "Pacman" Jones and Chris Henry. The message went far beyond them, to all NFL players.
SI.com: Time to get toughupdated: Tue Mar 20 2007 11:16:00
The NFL may soon hand down the kind of decision that could highlight Roger Goodell's brief reign as commissioner and put the spotlight squarely on his efforts to strengthen the league's personal conduct policy. Sources within the league office say the NFL is likely to set an example with its punishment of troubled Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman'' Jones, suspending him even before the legal process from a Las Vegas strip club brawl in February is complete. The suspension could wipe out his entire 2007 season.
SI.com: Under the gunupdated: Tue Jan 02 2007 15:47:00
In the wake of Darrent Williams' murder -- only the latest and most tragic instance of late-night violence and gunplay involving a well-known athlete -- I was struck by something NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said: "We've really got to get a handle on why there's such a proliferation of gun violence around our players.''
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|