Roger Goodell: Taunting Penalties Are 'Significant Issue' And Players Need To Be 'Role Models'
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Roger Goodell spoke about a wide range of issues affecting the National Football League at a press conference following Wednesday's NFL owners meeting in Houston. Among the topics were the NFL's ratings problem and the many factors affecting it, one of which is the excessive amount of penalty flags that have slowed games down and watered down broadcasts. Sean McDonough admitted it himself as he simultaneously did play-by-play during Monday Night Football.
Flags have come out more frequently in 2016, due in large part to the NFL's crackdown on what they perceive to be a problem with unsportsmanlike conduct. Excessive celebration and taunting penalties are way up, with 37 combined flags thrown for those fouls so far in 2016 as compared to 21 at the same point in 2015.
Ask NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and he'll tell you that taunting is what's wrong with the game these days.
"We have taunting, which is a significant issue, and taunting fouls are up this year," said Goodell. "It's probably a combination of making that a point of emphasis. But we look at that as sportsmanship. And that can lead to, in most cases when somebody taunts somebody else, somebody reacts and that can escalate quickly.
"So those are things that we're really concerned about. We look at it closely. The committee balances those issues. I don't think they're being officiated inconsistently."
Also ... will someone please, think of the children!
"We do believe that our players are role models and others look at that at the youth level. So that's important for us to hold that standard up. And it's part of being a professional. So that's one element of it."
Just a strange hill to die on for the commissioner. The whole "role model" spiel simply cannot be taken seriously, as the NFL employs grown men who have engaged in a wide variety of activities and done a range of things that would be incredibly far from exemplary of a "role model." Giants kicker Josh Brown (of all people) has been curiously under-investigated and under-punished for what's being revealed as a self-admitted, disturbing pattern of violent, sociopathic behavior against his wife. That guy is about as far from a role model as you can get, but he gets to keep his job.
But don't you dare try to use the football as a basketball, Vernon Davis - or else.
It's true. Taunting penalties are a significant issue and players could stand to be better role models as people. But not for the reasons that Goodell appears to believe.
Considering the NFL's TV dominance even in the face of the 2016 ratings decline, most fans are willing to accept that professional football players are decidedly not role models. Yet, Goodell still feels the need to turn these guys into his idealized vision of a "sportsman," which apparently involves becoming a joyless cybernetic organism incapable of showing emotion on the field.
"People may not like the rule. They may not like the line that's been drawn. But we believe it's part of being a professional league," said Goodell.
And that, right there, is the hardest question of them all when it comes to taunting, celebrations, and unsportsmanlike conduct: where do you draw the line?
To the NFL, it's easier to just eradicate all ostentatiousness from the game, whether it's part of your own attention-grabbing antics or in the direction of an opposing player. You can't really let the games descend into anarchy with players butting heads and getting in scuffles after every single play, but the effort to control that has resulted in games that may be more "professional," but are eminently less watchable due to nearly twice as many flags - for infractions that really don't seem like that much of an outrage to NFL fans at-large.
If you want to draw the line with the aforementioned youth football leagues, then that would be more understandable. Young kids can reasonably be reined in as far as getting in each other's faces, making threatening gestures, etc. But no reasonable human should expect grown men who get paid to play the game at a professional level to adhere to the same standard as kids in their formative years, or even adolescence. They have a job to do, and it's to win football games, not teach kids right from wrong. Yet when they do things that are actually wrong, ie. criminal, they go oddly un-punished.
If you want to teach kids not to emulate the behavior of professional athletes, perhaps you should focus more on the truly bad behavior that has a real, serious effect on players and their families. Put forth a real effort into curbing the league's problems with domestic violence and other real crimes. Until then, there's no reason the NFL or Goodell should be taken seriously as a league that wants "role models" on its playing fields. The league's on-field product - and off-field lip service - won't get any better until the league is more honest with itself, and that honesty starts with letting professional players enjoy the games on the field the way they want and coming down harder on those who have too much latitude off of it.
Goodell has it backwards. If he seriously wants to worry about "role models," he should worry more about that outside of what happens on Sunday afternoons. Fix the people behind the facemasks, and leave the games alone.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
