It was just six years ago when the NFL was immersed in one of its worst public relations nightmares ever.
Mike Vick pleaded guilty to federal dog fighting charges and would be banned from the sport for over a year. Also that year, Pacman Jones was suspended for a season after a strip club shooting. It was the first time in nearly half a century players were suspended for anything other than substance abuse.
The catalyst was Roger Goodell. The commissioner had constructed a new personal conduct policy for the NFL that resulted in harsher suspensions for players. It was a dramatic shift for the league as Goodell took actions that had rarely been done before.
Goodell was able to enact a harsher punishment model because of one indisputable fact: He had the moral authority to do so.
But now there’s been a shift in how the NFL is handling problem players. It is leaving it up to the clubs.
A number of player arrests have again battered the image of the NFL with the most prominent being something potentially worse, it can be argued, than the actions of either Vick or Jones. The homicide accusations against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez headline now what, in many ways, is a worse period -- at least in terms of image -- than it was in 2007.
Yet Goodell has been strangely quiet. As far as I can tell, there are no new initiatives being planned by the league. It’s difficult to believe the league won’t address this PR nightmare, but so far they have not as opposed to 2007, when Goodell took rapid and highly public action.
So where is Goodell?
His absence is purposeful and by design and represents a dramatic yet largely unnoticed shift by many outside of the sport.
It’s become clear based on interviews with people across the NFL that Goodell has been silent because teams are increasingly the dispensers of discipline, not the league office.
This is something that Goodell has wanted and it might have been his vision all along. Six years ago, Goodell set up the punishment infrastructure, and was also the punisher. Six years later, with that infrastructure firmly in place, teams are now taking the punishment lead. Goodell can monitor instead of being the hall monitor.
Teams know what Goodell wants and they are now doing it themselves.
Teams have always been a part of the discipline process, obviously. But this is still a shift and a smart one. Discipline flows easier and more rapidly when teams are taking the lead.
The examples of this are everywhere. The Patriots released Hernandez without almost any league involvement. The same happened when two Denver Broncos executives were busted for driving drunk. The Broncos instituted punishment, not the NFL. In the past, Goodell would have been front and center.
What happens from here? This is likely to continue. Goodell will still be involved, but the NFL will continue to allow this newer process of having franchises take the lead while Goodell remains in the background.
Because this isn’t 2007 anymore. This is the future.
