More insanity from the NFL, Part III

It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t take this opportunity to accuse Roger Goodell and the NFL league office of destroying the game that I love.

Kam Chancellor’s ridiculous penalty
for sacking Cleveland quarterback Colt McCoy is another example of the league’s systematic, yet ignorant mission to ruin the greatest game in the world. What follows is further incensed by a
penalty for unnecessary roughness against Bernard Pollard in the Ravens-Jaguars Monday Night Football game. Both plays were examples of good defense and players doing EXACTLY what they’re supposed to do.

On Sunday, my reaction to Chancellor’s penalty went from confusion to outrage to bitterness within a matter of seconds.

But let me back up a bit.

Recently, Goodell and the NFL league office have discussed the possibility of starting an NFL franchise in London. Over the past few seasons, the NFL has dipped its toe in the Atlantic by staging one NFL game every year across the pond. Last Sunday, the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played a game in Wembley Stadium.

While this game was being played in hopes of piquing interest world-wide, back in the states the NFL league office and its new campaign for player safety was at work, unknowingly destroying the tradition and the essence of what makes this game watchable in any country. Chancellor’s penalty in the first quarter of the Seahawks game is yet another installment in the NFL’s clueless crusade to eliminate a fundamental element of football.

The league’s ambition to expand in the midst of this reminds me of my days working at Merrill Lynch as a stock broker in the late ’90s. When Yahoo stock went from 20 to 100, there was talk of the price going to 500. The problem was no one was looking at the fundamentals of the company and whether or not the stock could sustain its current value, much less another quintupling of the price.

We all know how that one ended (Yahoo = $16.) The NFL needs to look long and hard at the product that they do have and evaluate its fundamentals before expanding internationally.

I often blame Roger Goodell for all of this because he’s the figurehead for the NFL. I suppose I could include the rules committee, the rest of the decision makers in the league office and the owners – all of them guys in suits that never played the game and are not in touch with the fans that make professional football such a valuable asset.

These fans are what drive revenues for the NFL and although they aren’t people “the suits” hobnob with at cocktail parties, they are ultimately what matters. It’s Mr. and Mrs. Seahawk and Big Lo and the millions that watch the game on their TVs and buy the products advertised during the broadcast.

Sure, we’re all temporarily distracted by Tom Brady throwing for 600 yards and seven touchdowns in one game. But if you can’t touch Brady or tackle the receivers he’s throwing to, it won’t seem so spectacular anymore. An uncontested throw from a quarterback to his receiver with no downside risk is just two guys playing catch. Fans are smart enough to know the difference even if “the suits” are not.

The tipping point will be when an important game, perhaps a conference championship game or maybe even a Super Bowl, is decided because of one of these ridiculous judgment calls in the name of player safety.

A few questions for anyone responsible for the penalties on Kam Chancellor and Bernard Pollard: Are you proud of that? Do you really feel good about this product?