Rozner: Credit Bears fans with showing Goodell disrespect he deserves
No one saw Tom Brady in Chicago the last few days, but it sure sounded that way whenever Roger Goodell showed his face.
Credit Chicago football fans with showing the NFL commissioner the proper disrespect he deserves.
Bears fans showered Goodell with boos every time he walked on stage for two full days at the NFL Draft.
You would have thought at some point they would get tired of doing it, or Goodell would get tired of hearing it and hand the job to someone else, but he kept coming out and Chicago kept handing it to him.
Nicely done.
Goodell is an NFL punchline at this point, his campaign against the Patriots and Brady just the latest absurd chapter certain to stain Goodell's sloppy legacy.
Of course, when you collect $34 million a year and more than $180 million since 2009, legacy is probably pretty far down your list of worries, and Goodell must laugh and smirk as he hears the insults, thinking of the money he pockets while trying to extract as much as he can from Brady and Bob Kraft.
Small price to pay, a few boos, one would suppose.
So why such anger from the fans? Do you think Goodell wonders? Does he ask his sycophants? Would they tell him the truth?
The New England debacle is certainly part of it, but it's the random nature of his justice system that affects most people.
And when you dig into what really angered Goodell about the Brady fiasco, it was Brady's alleged destroying of a cell phone to avoid prosecution that really got to the commissioner.
So if you're keeping score at home, that's four games for destroying a cell phone, two games for destroying a woman's face.
That was the original penalty for Ray Rice. No outrage from the commissioner on that account. But possibly deflate a football and he brings the entire weight of the NFL legal system down on the Patriots.
Never mind that Goodell claims he couldn't get a tape of what happened in that Atlantic City elevator. Tried as hard as he could. Nope, just couldn't do it. TMZ got it. Ray Rice's attorney reportedly had it.
But the NFL with all its billions and all its power couldn't locate the tape?
Goodell makes it up as he goes along and NFL owners sit by and let it happen. Their profits soar, revenue sharing roars and franchise values skyrocket, so they're in no hurry to make changes.
They must know they can do better, that their bankrolls won't shrink as long as there's a point spread posted on every game, so why not ask for legitimate leadership?
This is the same guy that hands out a season's suspension for smoking marijuana, but doesn't react to domestic violence or sexual assault until it becomes a national story.
He punishes the Patriots and Brady with virtually no evidence, contradicting portions of his own ruling and the Wells Report as he humiliates Brady publicly, but mulls Greg Hardy until a firestorm erupts.
Pictures of a cold football matter more than pictures of a woman battered and beaten.
It doesn't seem at all likely that Roger Goodell cares that fans of a charter franchise genuinely dislike him and embarrass him for hour after hour on national TV.
It doesn't seem at all likely that he wonders about it.
And it's even less likely that anyone around him will tell him the truth.
But if he really wants to know why fans around the country hold him in such high disdain, the answer is really rather simple.
The comments he makes are laughable, his decisions are inconsistent and the rulings he hands down are filled with contempt and bias.
They expect better from a $34-million man.
brozner@dailyherald.com
• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.