Roger Goodell

[steelnavy]

I love how he gets booed every time he walks to the podium. He would have to be a sociopath to not let that bother him.

[pittpete]

With the $$$ he makes you could boo me and then hit me in the head with a moldy potatoe

[RuthlessBurgher]

With the $$$ he makes you could boo me and then hit me in the head with a moldy potatoe

Or start the "commissioner punch" tradition discussed in the Browns thread.

[Djfan]

I would take the moldy potato (spell it correclty, Mr. Quayle!) and the boos for half his pay.

[SS Laser]

I would take the moldy potato (spell it correclty, Mr. Quayle!) and the boos for half his pay.

I will do a moldy potato and tomato with boos for 1/4 of his pay! Even a 1/8 really.

[hawaiiansteel]

Missouri Supreme Court invalidates Commissioner as arbitrator

Posted by Mike Florio on May 5, 2015



When it comes to employment disputes involving individuals teams, the NFL traditionally stacks the deck in its favor, forcing disgruntled employees to agree to arbitration — with the Commissioner of the league presiding. Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court delivered what could become a fatal blow to the league’s obsession with allowing a non-lawyer to make legal decisions that could be influenced by business interests unrelated to what the law requires.

In a lawsuit filed more than four years ago by former Rams equipment manager Todd Hewitt, the Missouri Supreme Court invalidated the requirement of submitting all claims to arbitration resolved by the Commissioner. The Missouri Supreme Court based its conclusion in part on a fairly simply analysis of three provisions of the league’s Constitution and Bylaws.

First, the Court pointed out that Section 8.3 gives the Commissioner “full, complete, and final jurisdiction and authority to arbitrate . . . [a]ny dispute between any player, coach, and/or other employee of any member of the League and any member club or clubs.” Next, the Court pointed out that Section 8.1 requires the NFL to “select and employ a person of unquestioned integrity to serve as Commissioner of the League and shall determine the period and fix the compensation of his employment.” Then, the Court pointed out that Section 8.2 states that the “Commissioner shall have no financial interest, direct or indirect, in any professional sport.”

The provisions are clearly inconsistent; it’s impossible for the Commissioner to have “no financial interest” in “any professional sport” when he is paid by the league — and when the bulk of his compensation often comes from bonuses tied to the financial success of the league. More importantly, the Missouri Supreme Court concluded that the conflicting provisions and obvious bias of the Commissioner when “required to arbitrate claims against his employers” makes the requirement that employees submit claims to arbitration resolved by the Commissioner unenforceable.

While narrow in application to the State of Missouri (which serves as the home of two NFL teams, the Rams and Chiefs), the ruling provides a blueprint for employees who hope to avoid Commissioner-resolved arbitration in the other 21 states in which the NFL does business. It also gives the NFL Players Association and the NFL Referees Association a potential hammer for challenging in court the ability of the Commissioner to continue to serve as the arbitrator over claims brought by players and game officials, respectively.

While those provisions likely will have greater teeth because they appear in Collective Bargaining Agreements, the three provisions quoted by the Missouri Supreme Court from the NFL’s Constitution and Bylaws lay the foundation for a case-by-case attack on arbitration submitted to the Commissioner based on the inherent bias of the Commissioner.

It’s an obvious problem that has been hiding in plain sight for decades. At some point, the unions, the courts, and/or the NFL itself need to acknowledge that the Commissioner necessarily is incapable of being objective when resolving disputes involving the very teams that hire and pay him, and to come up with a more fair and unbiased procedure for resolving disputes.

[URL]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/05/missouri-supreme-court-invalidates-commissioner-as-arbitrator/[/URL]

[Discipline of Steel]

Next, the Court pointed out that Section 8.1 requires the NFL to “select and employ a person of unquestioned integrity to serve as Commissioner of the League and shall determine the period and fix the compensation of his employment.”

The current Commissioner's integrity is certainly questionable, therefore he should not be allowed to serve another minute as Commissioner according to NFL Bylaws.

[BradshawsHairdresser]

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
Hear, hear!

[MCHammer]

Goodell serves at the pleasure of the NFL, just like Tom Brady. Hate them both all you like. The joke is on you because Goodell is doing what he is told and nothing more. He is the owners' puppet.

[JDSteeler]

Goodell is straight crooked!!

Hope this POS gets fired ASAP!!!

JD

[DukieBoy]

Goodell's interest is in damage control, no interest in truth and consequences.

[squidkid]

Goodell is straight crooked!!

Hope this POS gets fired ASAP!!!

JD

so the owners (that made millions upon millions of dollars because of goodell) are gonna fire him?

[Discipline of Steel]

We can only hope that his nefarious ways will eventually tarnish the shield to the point where the owners just wipe the slate clean by replacing him.

[hawaiiansteel]

by Bob Labriola
Steelers.com

* Whaddya think of opening in New England now?

* Back in 1963, the NFL Commissioner was Pete Rozelle, and he faced a situation in which the highest-profile player on a two-time defending championship team coached by the legendary Vince Lombardi was suspected of betting on his own club and said to be associating with “known hoodlums.” Paul Hornung said he bet on his Green Bay Packers with “friends” for $100 or $200. Rozelle said the bets actually were for as much as $500 with the implication that Hornung’s “friends” were ne’er-do-wells.

* A classic case of he-said, he-said, but Rozelle still suspended Hornung, who had set an NFL record with 176 points in 1960 and been the league’s MVP in 1961, for the entire 1963 season. The entire 1963 season.

* I cannot get myself to believe Roger Goodell will make the kind of statement Rozelle did back in 1963, and there can be debate over whether tampering with footballs rises to the same level of impugning the integrity of the sport as players betting on the outcome. But there has to be a suspension, maybe two.

* In my mind, the team that could be watching this very closely is the New Orleans Saints. The Saints had their head coach suspended for an entire year for BountyGate, and even though Sean Payton claimed to be completely unaware of the particulars of the violations, Goodell essentially ruled that ignorance is no defense against wrong-doing.

* The Wells Report concluded that Bill Belichick was largely unaware of footballs being deflated, but if ignorance was no defense against wrong-doing when Payton got suspended for a full year, then that same standard should apply here. And since the NFL already found Belichick guilty in SpyGate – the $500,000 fine the league levied against him points to his guilt – is this a second offense? In a court of law, a second offense typically brings a harsher punishment.

[URL]http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/On-opening-in-NE-Ravens-draft-drops/7d8984d1-ef36-4729-8864-b9ba46c60944[/URL]

[squidkid]

by Bob Labriola
Steelers.com

* Whaddya think of opening in New England now?

* Back in 1963, the NFL Commissioner was Pete Rozelle, and he faced a situation in which the highest-profile player on a two-time defending championship team coached by the legendary Vince Lombardi was suspected of betting on his own club and said to be associating with “known hoodlums.” Paul Hornung said he bet on his Green Bay Packers with “friends” for $100 or $200. Rozelle said the bets actually were for as much as $500 with the implication that Hornung’s “friends” were ne’er-do-wells.

* A classic case of he-said, he-said, but Rozelle still suspended Hornung, who had set an NFL record with 176 points in 1960 and been the league’s MVP in 1961, for the entire 1963 season. The entire 1963 season.

* I cannot get myself to believe Roger Goodell will make the kind of statement Rozelle did back in 1963, and there can be debate over whether tampering with footballs rises to the same level of impugning the integrity of the sport as players betting on the outcome. But there has to be a suspension, maybe two.

* In my mind, the team that could be watching this very closely is the New Orleans Saints. The Saints had their head coach suspended for an entire year for BountyGate, and even though Sean Payton claimed to be completely unaware of the particulars of the violations, Goodell essentially ruled that ignorance is no defense against wrong-doing.

* The Wells Report concluded that Bill Belichick was largely unaware of footballs being deflated, but if ignorance was no defense against wrong-doing when Payton got suspended for a full year, then that same standard should apply here. And since the NFL already found Belichick guilty in SpyGate – the $500,000 fine the league levied against him points to his guilt – is this a second offense? In a court of law, a second offense typically brings a harsher punishment.

[URL]http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/On-opening-in-NE-Ravens-draft-drops/7d8984d1-ef36-4729-8864-b9ba46c60944[/URL]

i hope payton will have the balls to sue goodell