It’s starting to feel like the Iron Rule Reign of Roger Goodell has lost that fairy tale glow and is moving into the controlled burn stage. That probably means the NFL-A-pocalypse isn’t far behind.

From out of nowhere comes the Weekly Fine Update hosted by Roger Goodell, complete with house band. Flags may be thrown (or not) on Sundays, but fines are handed out on Fridays to the tune of thousands of dollars. Jared Allen alone has forked over $90,000 this season for four offenses determined ‘finable’ (Seriously, it seems that the evaluation process is that unstructured.) by the NFL. The latest being a $10,000 fine for pretending to give the ball CPR after a sack in the Bears V. Vikings game.

That’s got to start to feel like the people you work for are against you. Could you imagine the equivalent in your office? “Fran, you interrupted and raised your voice in the conference room. That will cost you $300.” Or, “Chad, glad you closed that million dollar deal, but you were a little tough on the client so I’m docking you 10 percent.” Sometimes it seems one game results in a cash take for the NFL equivalent to the stadium-wide beer tally at an Eagles V. Dallas game, including tailgating.

Then there’s Joey Porter. Fiesty, yes, but fine-worthy for talking smack after a play? For talking??? Apparently so, as the NFL has fined him $7500 for unsportsmanlike conduct during Miami’s loss to New England on November 23rd. It was stated that he “was verbally abusing the opponent after the play was over.” The horror…the horror…

Why was there not an announcement of this new hard-line and cash-hungry stance prior to the start of the season? Perhaps Goodell is trying to ruffle some feathers at the NFLPA in advance of sitting at the negotiating table to hogtie a new collective bargaining agreement. The NFLPA has always appeared to have the upper hand, so is the league trying to show that it has the Iron Fist?

At what point did NFL players become pawns in a business that got too big for no good reason? It’s become awkward in its transparency - players being punished post-game when it suits the league yet an inaccurate score (and one that netted Vegas in-and-around $60 million when the final score became Pittsburgh 11 - Chargers 10…hmmmm…) remains in the books even though the league admitted immediately after the game that the officials botched the call nullifying Troy Polamalu’s touchdown. Why can’t the score be reversed? That would require the bold use of common sense.

The horror…the horror…

Wanna know what else is going to be a horror? The negotiation of the new CBA.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Fantoo Blog Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.