In a week marked by elections, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s chances of winning an election to become forever known as the worst sports commissioner in history received a boost on Thursday.
While discussing the election of Donald Trump, Roger Goodell, whose dad lost his job as a U.S. Senator because a renegade conservative went third party to oust the liberal Republican, claimed that some of Trump’s comments about women have made his life at home as a husband and father harder.
Goodell told the Washington Post, “Listen, it makes my job harder at home, too. I have twin daughters and a wife and so I have to explain that to them. So yes, on that front. Does it make it harder publicly?
“Listen, I think our country has to have more respect for one another and we have to unite. I saw some very positive signs of that yesterday with our current president, Hillary Clinton’s comments publicly and others coming together and saying, ‘We have to get together, we have to unite, we have to address some of the issues and work together.’ President Trump is our president so let’s get behind him.”
What kind of crazy, alternative 1950s universe does Goodell live in where he has to explain the presidency to his wife? This line from the liberal sports media talking point list is the most demeaning to women. Surely she can make the decision on who to vote for on her own. Fifty-three percent of white women voted for Trump, so according to statistics his wife likely voted for Trump. Maybe the woman should explain it to him.
The word “irony” falls short when trying to relay the insanity of Roger Goodell citing Donald Trump for insensitivity towards women. Under Goodell’s reign as commissioner, the NFL saw a player knock his fiancée out in an elevator, another player assault a woman by throwing her on a bed full of guns, and another guy who saw himself like a “God,” and his wife, a “slave” as he assaulted her in front of her children for years.
And how did Goodell deal with these offenses?
In the case of former Ravens running back Ray Rice, who knocked out his fiancée in a casino elevator, Goodell handed down a meager two-game suspension before national public and media outrage forced Goodell to effectively end Ray Rice’s career.
In truth, Goodell so mishandled the Ray Rice incident that he had to develop a new domestic violence policy for the league. This new policy stated that a player would be suspended for six games after their first domestic violence offense. Such a strong policy might convince one to believe that Goodell had seen the error of his ways and made a substantive change.
Goodell’s next opportunity to enforce the policy came after New York Giants kicker Josh Brown’s arrest for fourth degree domestic violence assault in May of 2015. Except Goodell elected to not exercise the policy there either. Instead, Brown received only a one game suspension before, just like in the Ray Rice situation, public outrage forced Goodell to place Brown on the commissioner’s exempt list in late October, over a full calendar year after Brown’s initial arrest.
I wonder how Roger Goodell explains that to his family. Does he tell his family that his price for violently knocking out a woman is two weeks off? How does he explain not enforcing a policy designed to combat domestic violence and allowing a guy who beat his wife in front of her kids to remain in his league?
Donald Trump once said he would fire Roger Goodell if elected president. One likes his chances of generating bipartisan support for that.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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