Jim O'Donnell: Life, death or close call, Rozelle's enduring 'think league' will always prevail
THE LATE ART MODELL is remembered as one of the most vilified owners in the history of the NFL.
In 1995-96, burdened by debt and seizing civic leverage, Modell sucker-punched Cleveland in its Rust Belt gut and turned the classic Browns into the Baltimore Ravens.
But by resume, Modell was also a TV advertising mastermind. He was of inestimable value to Pete Rozelle and associates when the NFL commissioner was negotiating the first unified, big-money network contract with CBS in 1963 and more lucrative deals to come.
Later, when asked what the most important philosophy Rozelle embedded into the NFL was, Modell replied:
"'Think league.' Always, 'think league.'"
THE PRELUDE IS NECESSARY to contextualize all that has happened and is happening in the deepest recesses of the NFL since Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed and almost died on "Monday Night Football."
The national shock was immediate and organic. All thoughts and positive vibrations toward the survival and recovery of Hamlin were undoubtedly genuine.
But on the NFL checklist, as that shock rapidly turned to aberrant event management, the descending priorities for Roger Goodell and Co. became:
• Image maintenance;
• Competitive continuity; and
• The well-being of Hamlin.
A LIMITED GROUP of wealthy business people who reap vast profits off fast and violent athletic show business exhibitions were confronted with a uniquely negative scenario.
Their football world couldn't end, even if Hamlin's might.
As the film director Alfred Hitchcock so famously said, "All actors are to be treated like cattle."
Contemporary pro football players are any different?
THE DECISION TO PULL THE PLUG on the Bills-Bengals game came within an hour of Hamlin's cardiac crisis. It was made at the Goodell level, supplanting on-site officials.
But questions linger, among the most compelling:
• What if a similar event or worse happens in overtime of a Super Bowl?;
• What if a similar event occurs sometime in the upcoming, tightly-windowed 12 playoff games leading to SB 57?
There is an awful lot of revenue to be poured down the NFL gold chute from those games.
And if that uniquely negative scenario became a worst case, wouldn't the party line quickly become, "We played the game because Damar Hamlin would have wanted it that way."
HARD-EDGED, DEPERSONALIZING and ghastly pragmatic?
To the max.
But also thoroughly in keeping with the enduring Rozelle axiom:
"Think league."
***
JOE BUCK TOOK AN ODD SORT of flak in the wake of the Hamlin incident.
During the tense wait on ESPN's "Monday Night" telecast as the young Bill was being transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Buck reported that he and Troy Aikman were told that the two teams would have "five minutes" to warmup before the game would resume.
On Tuesday, an NFL official insisted that was never the case.
Buck immediately responded that he was standing by what he reported in that moment.
From the "Judge Judy" playbook, a key Q.: Why would Buck possibly manufacture such distortion?
Bailiff Byrd, please escort the NFL out.
STREET-BEATIN':
The 23-season marriage of the Bears and WBBM, 780-AM ends Sunday with the broadcast of the Vikings game. The rights drop to chloroforming WMVP, 1000-AM next season. Final conclusions: Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer are one of the better local radio duos in the NFL; the Audacy pregame show was always sponsor-packed but had content devolve into tedious and gassy; postgame programming was excessively "house-y" and only for people who read the fine print on colon health labels. ...
Skip Bayless - the most overpaid poseur in American sports media - got his locks in a ringer for an insensitive tweet after the Damar Hamlin drama. If Fox Sports suspended him, who'd know? ...
Someone at a Tier-3 sports website emphasized Bob Sirott's long love affair with the Cubs in a sweet-perk, fawning "profile." The full truth is Sirott's morning show on WGN-AM (720) has Dave Eanet (plus), Dean Richards (platinum-plus) and a whole lot of Itchycoo segments that sound suspiciously like infomercials. ...
And Phil Mushnick, from Big A Auto Antiques: "Every time I hear 'Baker Mayfield,' I envision a vintage car, like 'the 1936 Baker-Mayfield."
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.