When "Roughing the Passer" Has Gone Too Far

Photo by Adam Wesley (USA TODAY Network)

I almost wrote something about this last week in the wake of the Packers getting another game stolen from them by poor officiating. Then it happened again this week, and now I can't hold back anymore.

To be clear, I've long been of the opinion that in most cases, officiating doesn't decide the outcome of games... with some exceptions, of course. And I'm not blaming the officiating for Green Bay's embarrassing loss to the Redskins yesterday. But I am blaming them for their farcical sense of justice. So in case you haven't seen the league's latest nonsense, the two forthcoming tweets sum it up pretty well.

Just to review … this was a penalty ... ~ JW (1/2) pic.twitter.com/1RQ5c7z0kA

— Wilde And Tausch (@WildeAndTausch) September 23, 2018

... but this was not. ~ JW pic.twitter.com/ESLvOtQkhY

— Wilde And Tausch (@WildeAndTausch) September 23, 2018

Like the complete and utter crap penalty on Clay Matthews' hit on Kirk Cousins the week before, I didn't see it in real time. But I was pissed as soon as I saw it. The Alex Smith flag I get more than I do the Cousins one; the Alex Smith takedown involved Matthews landing on Smith, and per the NFL's asinine new rule, it's the correct call. But it is a horrific rule. Combine that with a play on Rodgers that absolutely should have drawn a flag... and it's clear the NFL has no idea what it's doing.

I didn't play organized football, but when defensive players, other quarterbacks, and even former heads of NFL officiating think you've screwed this up, then you have 100 percent screwed this up. The conspiracy theorist inside my head wants the Packers to sue the league for deliberately targeting them with their nonsense, but the rational person in my head knows that's stupid. But I'm dumbfounded at this point. Short of teams refusing to take the field until this gets fixed, I don't know this problem gets resolved.

We talk about how the NFL is supposedly declining and arguably dying and the various causes that go into it. Cord cutting, people boycotting due to anthem protests, and now this nonsense... I'll let Pro Football Weekly's Hub Arkush take it home.

If the NFL continues to pretend last 2 Roughing calls on Clay Matthews aren't complete B.S., I'm just not sure how much longer people will keep watching? League is becoming a total joke and it's truly sad to watch.

— Hub Arkush (@Hub_Arkush) September 23, 2018

The #TakeAKnee Dilemma

Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez (AP)

I've been wanting to write something about this for a while now, largely because the story keeps coming up. Then the furor dies down and I wasn't able to narrow down the stream of consciousness that this whole topic spurs. I think I've finally got enough coherent thoughts though that this time I'm good to go. I'd like to start by pointing out that what follows is purely my opinion. If you don't agree with it, fine. If you want to open up discussion about how you don't agree with me, again, fine. But I'm going to try to not engage in any personal attacks about this topic, because they don't help anything, and if you feel the need to engage in debate, I ask that you do the same.

The Tyrant Wins Yet Again

I wanted to wait on this one, and I was tempted to not even write anything about this topic. It's a crazy issue and a serious one, and I'm maybe not the most qualified person to speak on it. But when the lying tyrant Roger Goodell continues to get away with wielding his power for power's sake, I can't not say anything.

In case you've been living under a rock for a while, here's the basic rundown of what happened. Just over a year ago Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott was accused by an ex-girlfriend of domestic violence. Obviously, this is something that has to be taken very seriously, and it was; both the police and the NFL stepped in to investigate the claims. As it turns out, the police felt there wasn't enough evidence to go forward with a trial, and especially when the accuser failed to show up for the court date, the charges were dropped.

Photo from Getty Images (photographer uncredited)

Now the NFL is not the judicial system, and as we learned with their witch hunt of Tom Brady, they don't need proof beyond a reasonable doubt. They only need a "preponderance of evidence" to say, in essence, that it's "more probable than not" that Player X committed Offense Y. In the case of Elliott, they took over a year to investigate all of this, and felt that he did in fact commit the acts he was accused of. By virtue of the domestic violence policy put in place after the Ray Rice debacle, Elliott was suspended six games. He appealed, and yesterday the suspension was upheld, though Elliott will be allowed to play in this week's game against the Giants due to...legal technicalities? I don't even know.

Now, I've spent years attacking Goodell for being an incompetent, lying tyrant, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here. After the aforementioned Ray Rice debacle, the NFL put that domestic violence policy in place to at least give the impression that they give a crap about domestic violence. But last year, when the Josh Brown story broke, the league only suspended him for one game, though the Giants would release him a few days after he admitted to his pattern of abuse. Regardless, it showed that the league actually doesn't give a crap about domestic violence. The Elliott situation gave Goodell an out: he had a chance to try and show society that yes, the league takes these accusations very seriously and will stick to its guns when it comes to these situations. As far as PR stunts go, it's pretty effective.

Photo by USATSI (photographer uncredited)

Here's the problem though: we have to go back to the police investigation. Police obviously interviewed the accuser and went to fairly great lengths to verify her story. But they found serious inconsistencies between her account of what happened and other evidence (including some text messages that showed her trying to convince a friend to lie to extort money from Elliott). This is partially why Elliott's charges were let go. Now, while the NFL was doing its investigation, they also interviewed the accuser. The investigator who talked to her took her testimony and all the other evidence into account, and recommended that the league not suspend Elliott due to the same concerns police raised. Of course, Goddell in his infinite wisdom decided to ignore that and go ahead with the suspension because he's Roger Goodell and can do whatever the hell he wants. And unfortunately, that's why the arbitrator upheld the suspension. The CBA allows it. That's why Tom Brady's lawsuit was defeated in the Appeals Court. It's why I fear Elliott's lawsuit may not stand up either.

The precedent has been set, and it's a scary one. The NFL can do whatever it wants to its players, without evidence and without regards to the truth. Now, this is a more serious issue than the league not understanding the Ideal Gas Law. Domestic violence is a problem that does need to be dealt with, and offenders need to be punished harshly. But when the evidence to support the punishment is spotty, punishing them anyway reeks of evil totalitarianism. I'm not saying Roger Goodell is evil, because I don't think he is. But I would argue that he is incompetent and corrupted by absolute power, and without any safeguards to protect against his power, he will continue to bring unchecked poor decisions on the NFL, as he has done for years. And the owners are fine with this, because the league continues to bring in money and he serves as a perfect puppet. Goddell is an employee of the owners, and as long as he's around to bungle everything, no one will focus on their sins.

I said it last year when Brady's suspension was reinstated, and I'll say it again. The only recourse to save the NFL from itself is a players' strike. I will continue to advocate for it, even though I love football, because going without games for a while is worth it if the lying tyrant can no longer adversely impact the game in the false name of "the integrity of the shield."

Tears of a Tyrant

Really, I think this tweet sent out by the New England Patriots this morning says it all.

pic.twitter.com/KEpFUMr5bi

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 3, 2015

I've been pretty silent on the whole DeflateGate mess since it first came out. Unfortunately, I fell victim to the NFL's media campaign to sully Brady's name with the whole "11 of 12 footballs" report that was found to be a lie by the NFL's own investigation, yet idiots continue to trot that number out as if it were gospel because why would the NFL lie? Simple: Roger Goodell is a tyrant with a huge ego who didn't want to excuse a perceived disgrace of The Shield by Brady's alleged "general awareness". He couldn't let perceived injustice go unpunished. He's the man in charge, he had to remind the league.

Problem is, everyone that doubted it in the wake of the Ray Rice fiasco now knows that Goodell has no qualms about overreaching. He thinks he's all powerful, hence the four game suspension in the first place. ESPN's Mike Greenberg had a good point about this though.

So, unlimited power does NOT mean you can just do anything you want. Justice is served.

— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) September 3, 2015

If you haven't already, you should read Judge Berman's full ruling. While there's a fair amount of legalese, it's only 40 pages long and covers pretty much everything, while hitting on all the important points of the whole saga. It's important to note that the suspension was overturned because Goodell violated the CBA and refused more than one of Brady's requests for due process, not because the NFL had no evidence that Brady did anything (even though this point is absolutely true).

This is a big win for the game in general, but at this point, we still have a problem: Roger Goodell remains in office. It's clear that after this latest court loss that he has no business continuing to be the commissioner of the NFL. He continues to impose arbitrary punishments depending on how he views a player's actions for the image of the league, even if there's no evidence of anything actually happening. At the time it happened, I was all for the suspensions in New Orleans, but that situation was much like this one: the media fueled the NFL's propaganda, even if it wasn't true, and players were railroaded. The problem is, the Saints actually had a season impacted by that fiasco. The Patriots, unless Robert Kraft decides he wants to appeal the fine and loss of draft picks now, won't see an impact, at least not this season.

My final though is something of a hot take, so bear with me. The next collective bargaining agreement expires in 2020. This is a long ways away. Until that time, we're going to see more and more players going to court to overturn suspensions set by Goodell and the NFL. There are already rumors that Greg Hardy will fight his suspension, and other players will probably do the same in the future. I'm not sure I agree with that, unless it's clear, like in the Rice case, that Goodell is abusing his power again. When the CBA expires, the player's association needs to fight the disciplinary process and get independent arbitrators hearing appeals, as well as more standardized policies for discipline. If the league refuses to budge, the players should strike. While I'd hate to miss football, I think it would be worth it to get the NFL back into a system of checks and balances.

This gets me to my hot take: if, God forbid, Goodell is still in office by then and this sort of nonsense continues to take place, I think the players should demand he resign or refuse to play. It's the only way the owners would consider firing him unless sometime soon they decide the PR nightmare is too much. I have doubts that they will, so until then, we're going to keep hearing about these scandals because he is a lying tyrant.