Increasing scuttlebutt that Goodell’s contract extension may be in danger. SoSH favorite Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter with a piece in ESPN describing a call organized by Jerry Jones with 16 owners discussing his fate. They don’t go so far as to say Goodell may get canned but there are def. some choice quotes:
Will be interesting to see if this story gains momentum or peters out. From my perspective, the league has actually done a slightly better job of late dealing with some of the crises—likely the influence of Joe Lockhart. There was a fascinating passage in the Don Van Natta/Seth Wickersham ESPN piece that described how Goodell had endorsed a plan that would actually lobby on Capitol Hill for the players’ social issues in return for players agreeing to stand for the anthem – and the players have been legitimately impressed with his attentiveness to their concerns. After the PR dumpster fire the league has been for the last two or three years, it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that as soon as Goodell seems to be finding some common ground with players that some owners would be making noises about replacing him.
"You don't get to have this many messes over the years like Roger has had and survive it," one owner said during the call.
"We just don't have enough problem solvers," another NFL owner said. "We gotta get it right or we're just going to let it burn. Last time I felt like this was before the 1993 CBA settlement. That was just depressing, and Paul Tagliabue and Gene [Upshaw] stepped up and saved it in a spectacular way. We don't have that feeling right now."
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/21206250/dallas-cowboys-jerry-jones-owners-trying-halt-roger-goodell-proposed-contract-extension"That was our recurring theme, that there's no leadership," said another executive familiar with Thursday's conference call. "Everyone [in the league office] is trying to win the latest news cycle, and there's no long-term vision. It's just, 'How can we minimize the bad headlines, maximize the revenue and move on to the next day?' And there's an increasing frustration to that approach."
Will be interesting to see if this story gains momentum or peters out. From my perspective, the league has actually done a slightly better job of late dealing with some of the crises—likely the influence of Joe Lockhart. There was a fascinating passage in the Don Van Natta/Seth Wickersham ESPN piece that described how Goodell had endorsed a plan that would actually lobby on Capitol Hill for the players’ social issues in return for players agreeing to stand for the anthem – and the players have been legitimately impressed with his attentiveness to their concerns. After the PR dumpster fire the league has been for the last two or three years, it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that as soon as Goodell seems to be finding some common ground with players that some owners would be making noises about replacing him.
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