Where's Roger?

Where's the NFL commissioner? Roger "the Goods" Goodell has kept a very low profile recently. That's hardly a surprise after the chaos of the first few weeks of the season. The vultures in the media were trying to detonate the NFL after a run of off-the-field player transgressions. The league didn't help matters by bungling the Ray Rice investigation and the resulting judgement. A lot of fans and the media wanted Goodell thrown out of office. Some wanted worse things done to him. Goodell's and the NFL's response was weak, at best, but at least they admitted that mistakes were made. They said that they would strive to do better. From there, Goodell went into hiding. He skipped a visit to the opening game of the San Francisco 49ers new home. He hasn't really been seen or heard from since. That was about two months ago. In the best of times, no one really thinks about seeing or not seeing the NFL commissioner. He might pop up in a broadcast booth. We might see him in the fancy stadium suite of an NFL owner. These aren't the best of times for the league. A couple of months ago might have been the worst times that the league has ever seen. We may have forgotten about most of them but the league has been through many shaky times. The Commissioner is supposed to guide the league through those times. The NFL is at the top because commissioners/presidents like Joe Carr, Bert Bell, and Pete Rozelle have stepped up when they were needed most. They didn't disappear. They didn't hide when mistakes were made. The Commissioner has a job to do. He really can't be hiding.

The NFL took a huge hit with all of the events surrounding the Ray Rice mess. Part of that hit came from a media that wanted the NFL to do what the judicial system failed to do. Punish Rice for knocking out his fiancee. The two-game suspension that the league gave Rice was far more severe than the slight slap on the wrist handed out by the courts. I'm not sure when or even why the NFL took over for the judicial system . Still, the NFL had to punish Rice for his off-the-field crimes. They did but the penalty was far too light. It was far too light because the NFL didn't have a policy set up for handling the off-the-field antics of some of their players. For about 90 years, the judicial system handled the off-the-field crimes committed by football players. Now, the NFL is called upon to do so. Since this is all so new to the league there should be little surprise that there were some stumbles. Rice's two-game suspension was what was called for under the league's penalty system at the time. The two-game suspension wasn't considered nearly enough after that video tape appeared on the scene. That in itself was a puzzle. Everyone knew what took place in that elevator but I guess that we are a visual society.

Now, due to the screw-ups of a couple of months ago the NFL appears to be taking their time with Adrian Peterson. The Minnesota Vikings running back was placed on the "Reserve/Commissioners Exempt" list after he was indicted for disciplining his son with a switch. Peterson was to remain on that list, essentially a paid suspension, until his court proceedings were completed. He entered a plea of no contest on Tuesday as part of a deal with the prosecutors. The charge was reduced to misdemeanor reckless assault. He received two years probation, a $4,000 dollar fine, 80 hours of community service, and he has to attend parental counseling classes. His court case has been settled. Now, it is up to Roger Goodell. The commissioner has to decide whether to reinstate, suspend, or make some sort of decision about the immediate football playing status of the Vikings running back. Peterson has missed the last eight games. He's served a half-year suspension. He and his attorney Rusty Hardin have been in contact with Goodell and the league throughout the process. This plea agreement was no surprise. Goodell and his advisers should have had something close to an idea as to how to proceed. They don't need days to go over the pertinent information. They have known most, if not all, of the pertinent information for weeks, maybe months. This is no time for "the Goods" to remain in hiding and idle. It's time for him to do his job. Mistakes were made over the summer by making a quick, perhaps naive, decision. That's a stupid reason to make another mistake by sitting on their collective asses and doing nothing at all.

Gotta find Roger. He's got a job to do.