After nearly nine months of media attention and millions of dollars of independent investigation and court costs, the NFL’s “Deflategate” scandal has seemingly come to an end.
Last week, federal Judge Richard M. Berman ruled in favor of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, lifting a four game suspension originally handed down by league commissioner Roger Goodell. The NFL and Goodell immediately followed up this decision by filing an appeal, essentially continuing the fight for justice.
The NFL’s decision to appeal is grounded in Goodell’s desire to “protect the integrity of the game.” Over these past nine months, however, the focus of the Deflategate scandal has shifted away from the “integrity of the game” and rather toward preserving the absolute power and reputation of Goodell and the NFL. It is time for Goodell to put this blown out of proportion incident to rest and instead focus on more pressing issues, namely fixing the NFL’s disciplinary system as well as their concussion reduction efforts. These developments, in turn, will help to redefine the NFL’s public image.
Reestablishing this public image will take time, but it starts with Roger Goodell. Goodell has botched several discipline decisions in his tenure, largely because under the current NFL collective bargaining agreement, Goodell is the judge, jury and executioner when it comes to matters of player punishments.
Goodell must therefore take steps to improve the NFL’s disciplinary process. One step, for instance, would be to alter the CBA’s provision that punishments may only be appealed to the commissioner rather than to an independent party as it is for NBA and MLB appeals. If the NFL introduced neutral arbitration for appeals, it would reduce Goodell’s scope of power and provide a more satisfactory system in the eyes of the public for future years.
On the other hand, Goodell is unlikely to relinquish such authoritative power to a third party, and has suggested in interviews a policy in which a “designee of mine” would hear appeals rather than himself. The fact that Goodell is open to changing his role as the league’s primary discipline officer is promising, yet perhaps the most reasonable compromise would be to have the owners elect a disciplinary official from within the NFL. This would not only limit Goodell’s power to select anyone he wants but also provide for a more effective appeal system that players and owners are more likely to trust. Although not a drastic change, this alteration would be the first step toward changing Goodell’s role in league discipline.
Additionally, the NFL would do well to add issues pertaining to domestic violence into the CBA. In the past five years, of the 27 domestic violence allegations involving NFL players, only five resulted in league punishment and one in team punishment. It wasn’t until after the Ray Rice incident that the NFL appeared to come down with an iron fist, declaring that the punishment for domestic violence will be a six game suspension for a first offense and a lifetime ban for the second. “Lifetime ban,” however, actually means an indefinite ban from which the player can apply for reinstatement after one year.
Furthermore, because domestic violence still falls under the league’s Personal Conduct Policy, players still have the right to appeal their punishments, like a six game suspension, and likely get them reduced. Essentially, until domestic violence is added to the CBA with specifics on how cases will be conducted, not much will change in terms of disciplinary action, and players will continue to be above the law.
Another key issue the NFL should be focusing more time, money and effort on is the health and safety of its players, mainly in terms of concussions and their effects on players after they retire. The NFL’s public image is going to take a major hit with the Christmas release of the motion picture “Concussion,” which follows the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy and identified chronic brain damage as a factor in the deaths of former NFL players. The film focuses on the NFL’s desire to cover up the long-term effects of concussions on player’s health.
Despite this impending film release, there is no denying the NFL has made great strides to deal with these pressing issues. After over 200 lawsuits from over 5,000 retired players, the NFL reached a settlement to pay over $900 million over the next 65 years for retired player benefits. In the most recent CBA, which was agreed upon after a 136-day lockout, the NFL also agreed to reduce full-contact practices, give players more days off, and allow players to remain in their medical plan for life.
The bottom line, however, is that it shouldn’t take a lawsuit filed by thousands of former players for the NFL to compensate traumatized retirees and it shouldn’t take the longest player lockout in league history for the NFL to increase player health and safety measures. If the NFL is to better its public image, it must take action on its own accord.
Without a doubt, the NFL has taken drastic steps to appease players, retirees, and fans, yet there is still much to be done. For instance, the NFL could choose to allocate more money toward concussion medical research beyond their current four-year, $50 million concussion detection initiative from 2013.
Both by fixing the CBA and by taking further steps to promote player health, the NFL can prove to the public that it is an organization committed to helping its players rather than punishing them. Only when Goodell and the NFL drop the time-consuming deflategate debacle and focus on these public issues can the NFL truly put its reputation back in a favorable light.
Jared Fogel is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at j.fogel@cavalierdaily.com.
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