Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and lead NFL on FOX game analyst Troy Aikman gave an excellent take on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s Friday press conference. The presser was mostly panned by the media, most NFL fans and even a few NFL players. That criticism is well deserved; as Goodell did nothing to convey that he truly cares about the current crisis.
He only seemed to care about brand damage control, not actually making positive changes.
Goodell threw a lot of bland corporatespeak and meaningless platitudes at us. Instead of speaking from the heart and conveying news of anything tangible, the NFL commish gave us legalese and vanilla soundbites.
Here’s what Troy Aikman had to say on Fox NFL Sunday, the most interesting soundbites are in bold:
“I think there was just a lot of spin there.”
“It was a great opportunity for the commissioner to come out and be forthright and let everyone know what in fact he did know and why the investigation stopped when it did. Instead of getting answers, I think everybody walked away from watching that press conference without any answers whatsoever.
“I think if you’re going to hold players and coaches to a certain standard, then you as the commissioner – who has served as judge and jury since 2006 – you’ve got to be held to the same standard as well. If it is proven that that tape in fact did make its way to the league office there on Park Avenue, whether he saw that tape or didn’t see that tape – as we heard in the piece, ignorance is no excuse, that has been levied against the New Orleans Saints and Sean Payton – I think there have to be some pretty severe punishments for the commissioner himself.”
Obviously, the Ray Rice tape is what set this all off. And led to Ray Lewis making such an unfortunate verbal gaffe. And you should see the irony of Ray Rice at Super Bowl 47 Media Day now. Today this video is loaded with dark unintentional comedy now. Which led to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s joke of a press conference; which was shredded by the ESPN pundits; called out by FOX’s Troy Aikman, and completely lit up by HBO’s John Oliver.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partners with Fox Sports and Yahoo. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN2