I've been very interested in how the NFL has been treated by the media over the past 15 months, essentially since the Ray Rice stuff broke. Player discipline has long been an interesting topic under the Roger Goodell commissionership. Back in the early days, it was more feigned outrage and almost hilarity at the way he essentially suspended both Pacman Jones and Chris Henry for not leading a good life off the field, the infamous 'player conduct policy'. Even through Spygate, Bountygate, the Roethlisberger suspension and the Mike Vick dogfighting times, it was seen more as a quirk of his reign, but that all changed with Ray Rice.
I don't want to get into that argument again, because comparing what Ray Rice (or Adrian Peterson, or Greg Hardy) did to what Pacman Jones did is pointless, but in the wake of the latest legal defeat, and the even more latest round of 'Is this what sinks Goodell?; questions, I think it is an appropriate time to look more holistically. Is the NFL being treated fairly in this case - is it fair that so much is made of their player discipline policies compared to other sports. Why are the treated differently? I wanted to look at those questions a little deeper. I don't profess to have even some let alone any of the answers, but wanted to at least think this through a little.
Before we start, I will say the one NFL scandal which they deserve to be roasted for is their handling of concussions in the wake of mounting evidence that the NFL was dangerous; however that particular matter precedes Goodell's time, and the real nefarious behavior was under Rozzelle and moreso Tagliabue along with the alignment of 28-32 owners. That issue aside, why is the NFL treated differently?
Some of this is the outcome of just being a higher profile sport. In this country, the highest profile sport. All stories are bigger when they touch the NFL's mighty reach, whether it be positive on the field news or sordid off the field scandal. But still, that does not explain why every single player discipline or off-the-field, or on-the-field issue is magnified, is dissected, is approached with every angle and every hot take imaginable.
There's a couple issues I see that are not in the NFL's favor. First, the loss of a game is just far more meaningful. A four-game suspension can ruin a season. Every Sunday, every game, is of heightened importance, so suspensions that are handed out just seem so much more impactful. Second, no sport has gone to the lengths to make off-the-field issues a bigger story when it comes to on-field discipline as the NFL.
Certainly, it was a different era, but there was never any real call to suspend Kobe Bryant during his rape case, or Brett Myers when he punched his wife in public. There was no external call, but no internal call either. This is the real outcome of Goodell being so hard on personal conduct early in his tenure. He tried to clean up the game (not the first commissioner to do so; see: Stern, David), and in that set a dangerous precedent that ruined him.
The NFL, as in the commissioner and 32 owners, are heavily at fault here as well. It was their power-hungry desire to impose discipline that creates so many of these stories in the first place. It was them trying to circumvent legal processes. Then again, the media has been unfair both accusing of the NFL acting before or against courts (Roethlisberger suspended when not even charged), or accused of waiting for courts to rule (Ray McDonald). But let's not act like the NFL is the only league to act irrationally or inconsistently; they're just the only one that is the subject of national think pieces when it happens.
Major League Baseball suspended Alex Rodriguez for 180 games, ostensibly for taking steroids. The MLB tests for steroids, which Alex Rodriguez did not fail. They have a set penalty for failing a first offense, a penalty of 50 games. They decided to give Alex Rodriguez a suspension that was 360% longer than the rules dictate. While A-Rod did threaten to take MLB to court, ultimately he accepted the penalty. Why was the penalty so much longer, what was MLB's justification? It was Bud Selig implementing the 'best interest of baseball' clause - essentially the MLB version of what Goodell used to suspend Brady.
Yes, baseball is a sport diminishing in popularity, a minnow compared to the Blue Whale that is the NFL, but the steroid story can compete with the NFL. It was a story big enough to get congress involved, it was big enough to compete with any scandal in NFL history. It was big enough MLB took the step to implement a 50-game policy. When they wildly overstepped their own penalty, there was a little furor, but not even 10% as much as it was for Brady.
The NFL has, comparatively, not even had the biggest scandals in recent years (again, apart from anything related to concussions). Now, it is the fault of the NFL for turning mild scandals into 7-month investigations and processes, but the NBA dealt with a crooked referee and major questions about the legitimacy of its officiating. MLB dealt with the whole steroid issue. But the NFL gets criticized more for having the nerve to suspend a player for doctoring equipment?
The NFL has the highest level of scrutiny partly because it takes it upon itself to impose justice at a higher rate, partly because it's players seem less capable of accepting guilt, and partly because the media is unfair. I am sure of that. The NFL is no more or no less inconsistent and impulsive than any other sport.
I always chuckle when so many of the current generation of sports-writer slams the NFL for all its deserved missteps, and then at the same time tries to push soccer as a viable alternative and growing sport. Soccer, the sport who's governing body is so corrupt it makes the NFL look like the moral equivalent of a 16th Century monastery. Soccer has basically all US sports scandals rolled into one, including absolutely pathetic concussion protocols, constantly corrupt referees and players, and performance-enhancing issues, not to mention the plethora of issues that (so far) haven't felled US sports, like the supporting insane human rights violations in awarding the 2022 World Cup, to shady business practices with minors in the transfer market. Yes, that is the sport of the 21st Century in the US?
I'll end it with the one sport that I haven't talked about yet in comparison to the NFL: hockey. The NHL has a department dedicated to player discipline (granted, of the on-ice variety) - a weird office that has taken its share of flak, especially when it was run by Colin Campbell. That's another interesting contrast, and area where the NFL helped bull the sword it is being stabbed with - no other sport has their commissioner so actively involved in on or off field discipline. But anyway, one of the rare times a player was suspended on the wishes of commissioner Gary Bettman was the weirdest player discipline incident in recent times.
In the '08-'09 season, Sean Avery made a comment targeted towards Calgary Flames' defenseman Dion Phaneuf, that he saw it had become common for NHL players to date his 'sloppy seconds', in regard to Phaneuf dating his now-wife Elisha Cuthbert. Because of this comment, Sean Avery was suspended. First indefinitely, then limited to 6 games - essentially equivalent to a 1-game suspension in the NFL. That actually happened. Sean Avery was suspended because of a non-racist, non-discriminatory, if misogynistic comment directed at a fellow player. Before you say if the NFL is treated differently or not, just imagine a world where Roger Goodell suspended someone for that?
