Throughout history there have been examples of dictators who began with good intentions to improve the livelihood of their people and to help their countries prosper but gained unchecked personal power and their people suffered. From Genghis Khan, to Adolf Hitler, to even Augustus Caesar, these men promoted growth, development, prosperity and victory for their armies, society, and governments under the pretense that they would be the leader their people needed but ruled for their own gain.  As these men were embraced by their people, their authority and importance grew, they manipulated the people who put them in power and they became ruthless dictators. This, too, can be said of Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL), who has, with his power, become an outright dictator. Goodell and Caesar share the most qualities together in terms of their rise to power and refusal to relinquish it ("Julius Caesar"). The time has come for autocrat Roger Goodell to be replaced as commissioner, either by stepping down willingly, or by a forced replacement. Mr. Goodell has become a powerful tyrant, and with this power, is making a mockery of the football league, scandal after scandal and must be removed from office.

It is only fair to explain that Commissioner Goodell began his career as a well-regarded addition to the front office of the NFL. He skillfully navigated the league through a potential lockout and a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in 2011, he united the 32 owners when there was a large divide between newer owners and older owners, he and the NFL completed and updated many new stadiums, and he took the brunt of the backlash from the NFL’s scandals, such as the Ray Rice (domestic abuse) and Adrian Peterson (child abuse) incidents. In 2011, the teams’ owners were unhappy with the current CBA and demanded lower costs of players, lower wages for rookie contracts, and the ability to recoup money from players such as Aaron Hernandez, who could no longer play in the league often times because they were incarcerated. Goodell gave the owners everything they wanted, avoiding controversy and looking like the hero while doing it. Four new stadiums were completed under Goodell’s watch with two more on the way in Atlanta and Los Angeles- successfully bringing back two teams to Los Angeles after about 30 years. Goodell has also been the one to take most of the backlash after domestic violence incidents instead of team owners or general managers (The Goodell Decade). Unfortunately, the “good” works and deeds of Roger Goodell do not outweigh the bad.

Before delving into how Goodell has misused his power, it is important to know how he came in to such power. Roger Goodell took the office of the commissioner in August of 2006, after the previous commissioner, Paul Tagliabue retired. However, “the powers at issue in this case — the ability to safeguard the integrity of the game — has been around since the very first Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA in 1968” (Florio). Roughly five years later, in 2011, a new CBA was to be agreed upon by the NFL and the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). The CBA is a contract between the League and its players outlining players’, owners’, and officials’ rights, as well as contract negotiations and other things of the nature. At the time, there was tension between the team owners and the players, for the most part pertaining to the amount players were being paid and how little they could be paid (Florio). It appeared that Goodell would have to give up his totalitarian power in dealing with disciplinary issues for the new CBA to be agreed upon. Somehow, Goodell came out the hero in the owners’ eyes by giving them everything they wanted without relinquishing any of his perks as commissioner. This appeasement of the NFL owners while not losing any power himself shares similarities of Caesar’s cozying up with both Pompey and the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus ("Julius Caesar"). Since then he has only grown more powerful, using his stature to cover up scandal after scandal, from “Bountygate” to Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson. 

Goodell’s first real mistake occurred with the concussion crisis, which began before his time as commissioner but continues to be an issue to this day. In the late 1990’s, NFL players began to claim that football related head injuries were giving them long-term brain damage. After many independent studies, a link between football and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive, degenerative disease, was made. Goodell and the higher-ups in the NFL tried to squash these results, claiming there was no connection between football head injuries and CTE while also hiding data that linked the two (Laskas). Even after pouring millions of dollars into concussion research and changing rules and regulations to make football safer, an NFL lawyer stood before 4,500 retired players with a pending lawsuit and denied withholding data on concussions in the NFL (Laskas). Goodell dug himself in deep by hiding information about the connection between football and CTE and tried to cover it up by donating money and changing rules. While this was not an attack on his own people, the concussion crisis can be seen as Goodells versions of Caesar’s “Crossing of the Rubicon” as this was Goodell’s point of no return when it comes to cover-ups ("Julius Caesar"). This was only the first incident in his checkered history as the NFL’s commissioner. 

His next two blunders came in the category of domestic and child abuse, in his mishandling of the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson cases. In the case of Ray Rice, it was discovered that he assaulted his then fiancé, Janay Palmer, in a casino elevator. A video was then released on TMZ of Rice dragging her unconscious body out of the elevator. Rice was given only a two game suspension for his crime (Bien). The main controversies were how short his suspension was and that the NFL denied seeing a second video from inside the elevator of Rice punching Janay in the face and knocking her unconscious. Whether or not Goodell and NFL officials saw the video or not is asinine because they could have easily gotten the footage and given him an appropriate sanction instead of sweeping it under the rug. Rice’s suspension was finally upgraded to indefinite, and was released by the Baltimore Ravens after national outcry over the incident by the public and the media. Had the public not stepped up and voiced their opinion on the matter it is clear that Rice would have skated by on only a two-game suspension. To assist in the cover-up, the NFL released a new domestic abuse policy following the fiasco; “a six-game suspension without pay for the first offense and a lifetime ban for a second offense.” (Sharp). As for Adrian Peterson, he was found guilty of child abuse for beating his four-year-old son with a wooden switch. In this case, Peterson was suspended at least the last six games of the current season, an appropriate punishment (O’Connor). This only became a controversy for the commissioner because it was clear to everyone that he was making up for his laughable suspension of Ray Rice. This embarrassment left the commissioner scrambling to keep his reputation intact while being wildly inconsistent with punishments. While these two issues seem to be the pinnacle of his controversy, he saved his piece de resistance for the New England Patriots in “Deflategate”.

“Deflategate” is the nickname for the events occurring between the 2015 AFC championship game and October 2nd of 2016, when Tom Brady’s suspension had been served. The scandal involved an alleged deflating of footballs by the Patriots in the AFC championship game. The balls were measured at halftime and were found to be roughly one psi below the legal limit, while the Colts balls fell between the legal limit. Brady was given a four game suspension and the Patriots were docked two draft picks and fined one million dollars. After almost 600 days of court appeals and other legal nonsense, Brady’s suspension was upheld ("Deflategate Timeline: After 544 Days, Tom Brady Gives in"). The scandal became prominent because of how poorly it was handled and how the NFL flagrantly had a large bias against the Patriots in the case. The NFL’s bias was because of the success of the Patriots earlier in the decade and that they had been caught cheating by recording other teams signals on video. The public believed that the Patriots were cheaters and needed to be punished further, even though the punishment of “Spygate”, (the videotaping incident) as it was called, had already been served. With very spotty evidence, the Patriots had been shamed by the national media for deflating balls when nothing was certain. The Wells Report, the NFL’s largest piece of evidence, conducted by Exponent, a “neutral” testing lab found that it was “more probable than not” that Tom Brady was “at least generally aware” of the deflation (Wells). The wording of this report lead people to believe that the report had, in fact, found nothing of substance. However, the NFL commissioner was still trying to accuse the Patriots and Brady of wrongdoing. After plenty of independent tests from labs and universities, it was agreed upon, at least in the scientific community, that the Ideal Gas Law was to blame for the deflation, discrediting the NFL’s commissioner, Rodger Goodell, who presided over the Brady appeal (Nocera). In a very similar fashion, Caesar packed the Roman senate with his allies in order to get the political outcome he desired ("Julius Caesar"). The last piece of “evidence” from the Wells report was that Brady destroyed his cell phone. This was the headline that the NFL sent out to the media without explaining the real reason it was destroyed. Brady explained to Wells that he does this on a regular basis and only destroyed this one after he was told it would no longer be needed for the investigation. Goodell and the NFL used incorrect and incomplete propaganda to crucify Brady for something he did not do. This witch hunt ended with Goodell upholding Brady’s four-game suspension after it was overturned by a court in New York, and then overturned again when a different court ruled that Goodell was within his rights to uphold the suspension. The debauchery of this whole ordeal was an embarrassment to the League and its integrity and was by far Goodell biggest blunder as commissioner.

So now the question remains: Can Roger Goodell be removed from the office of the commissioner or would he have to step-down/retire? A Caesar-like removal is highly unlikely, as the Roman Emperor was assassinated by Brutus ("Julius Caesar"). However, according to Article IV, Section6.5(G) of the NFL’s Constitutions and Bylaws, “In the event that the Commissioner or any other officer of the League shall be convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude or be physically or mentally incapacitated to perform his duties or shall fail or refuse to abide by the Constitution and Bylaws of the League, and the Executive Committee finds that such action by such officer is detrimental to the best interests of the League, or in the event the Commissioner or any other officer of the League fails or is unwilling to perform his duties, then such Committee shall have the power after notice and hearing to suspend or remove said officer and to terminate any contract between such Commissioner or officer and the League.” (Jhabvala). It is clear through Goodell’s missteps with issues such as “Deflategate”, Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, and the concussion crisis that he has committed crimes of moral aptitude. Even further, the NFL’s personal conduct policy states, “All persons associated with the NFL are required to avoid conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the National Football League.” (Jhabvala). All of the previously stated actions have been detrimental to the integrity of the NFL, many times making a complete joke of the League. There is enough evidence supporting Goodell’s incompetence and his inability to protect the integrity of the game that he should be removed from the office of the commissioner, effective immediately. 
