Roger Goodell

All posts tagged Roger Goodell

Why does Ndamukong Suh always have a “Fine” time on Thanksgiving?

Posted by fantasyfurnace on November 30, 2013
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 8 Comments

After two Thanksgiving Holidays in a row, one would think that Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh would have either learned his lesson or is simply out for the additional publicity that Thanksgiving Day NFL games brings to him and the sport.

However, learning his lesson is not what Suh was going for when again, for the third consecutive Thanksgiving, the demonstrative Suh did it again! He made a throat-slash gesture towards Buccaneers’ running back Bobby Rainey following a three-yard loss in Detroit’s win over Tampa Bay; a gesture that the NFL banned almost 25 years ago. It wasn’t the $7875 that Suh was fined that is troublesome to most on-lookers, but instead the fact that he pulled similar bafoon-like actions twice before…in this season alone! After a turnover in week one, and after an illegal low-block on Minnesota Vikings center John Sullivan, the league hit the big guy with a ‘big’ fine of $100,000. In Cleveland in Week 6, he was fined another $31,500 for roughing passer Brandon Weeden.

This was the hit by Suh on Browns QB Brandon Weeden that cost him another $31,500 in fines. Photo: David Richard

This was the hit by Suh on Browns QB Brandon Weeden that cost him another $31,500 in fines. Photo: David Richard

Getting back to to Suh’s Thanksgiving Day indiscretions, how about last year when the NFL’s “Dirtiest Player” (according to the Sporting News) decided to kick Houston Texans QB Matt Schaub in the groin and thus ended up donating $30,000 more to the NFL. Then of course there was Suh’s most infamous or famous “fine” back in 2011 written about right here on the Furnace. He pushed Green Bay Packers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith’s head into the turf and then thought he would stomp on his arm just for good measure-ON Thanksgiving Day 2011.

#90 Defensive Tackle NDAMUKONG SUH shwon stomping on a defenseless Packer on Thanksgiving Day 20122. Photo: Andrew Weber USA Today Sports

#90 Defensive Tackle
NDAMUKONG SUH shown here stomping on a defenseless Packer on Thanksgiving Day 2011. Photo: Andrew Weber USA Today Sports

The “Bill Laimbeer of the turf” seems to bring added attention to himself on a day when ‘most’ of us are thinking of ways to be thankful for someone or something in our lives. The most curious thing about Suh’s actions is that they are coming from an extremely talented player in this league who shouldn’t have a need for his extra-curricula activities on the field. Perhaps it’s time for the NFL to take further action on Suh as he is clearly a ‘repeat offender’ who is not scared off by fines. Perhaps if Roger Goodell gives him a warning now, then maybe next Thanksgiving we could all enjoy a ‘cleaner’ game and one in which Suh can have a truly ‘fine’ time without having to forego any $$$ and one in which no player runs the risk of permanent injury…

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10 Reasons why the Replacement Refs should be replaced…

Posted by fantasyfurnace on September 25, 2012
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 9 Comments

Week #3 in the NFL saw the most mishaps to date which is why the further along the season goes, the more it seems inevitable that sports historians will find it necessary to put an *asterisk  on this season’s games. Every game, no matter who is reffing, will have its share of questionable calls but it seems more and more this year that some of them have been ‘game changing’. Which leads us to our first reason why the replacement refs need to be replaced:

1. Game changing calls can, in some instances, put a team into the playoffs that shouldn’t be there and put others that should on the charter flight back home.

2. The Monday Night Football game between the Packers and the Seahawks. Two refs in the end zone and each with a different take on the game-ending play. The call that stood was, of course, incorrect, making Russell Wilson the first QB in NFL history to win a game by throwing an interception!

The picture of ineptitude has one replacement ref signalling for a Touchdown while the other is calling for a Touchback. Roger Goodell, unforunately, is the only one who can change this situation. Photo: AP

 3. On the Redskins final drive vs the Bengals in their week #3  loss 38-31 , an unsportsmanlike conduct call by the refs resulted in a 20 yard penalty instead of 15. What’s worse is that the refs never explained who the call was against nor what the penalty was for.

4. Two ‘extra’ time outs  were awarded; one to the Ravens in their game vs the Eagles in week #1 and the other to the Seahawks in the game vs the Cardinals also in the same week.

5. Oakland WR Darrius Heyward-Bey was sent to the hospital with a neck injury after Steeler safety Ryan Mundy’s helmet-to-helmet hit in the Raiders week 3 loss. No flag was thrown on the play!

6.  An ESPN warning to the NFL eliminated Brian Stropolo from reffing the week #2 Saints-Panthers game when it was discovered that the ref was an ardent Saints fan on his Facebook page.

7. Completely out of timeouts, a replacement ref awards two replay challenges to the 49ers in the last several minutes of their loss to the Vikings in week #3.

8. Tennessee got an extra 12 yards marked off on a penalty by a replacement ref in overtime in the week #3 game vs the Lions. The ball was placed on the Detroit 29 yard line instead of the Detroit 41, thus slowing the drive towards the Titan’s winning field goal.

9. All five challenges  in the Week #3 Chiefs-Saints game were overturned ‘upon further review’.

10. Excessive penalties/Flow of the game- With some replacement crews  calling as many as 20-25 penalties a game, and then deliberating with each other for several minutes on most of them, it has affected the flow of the action and impeded teams in hurry-up offenses by completely eliminating the element of surprise.

Scenes like this where longer than normal discussions following penalties have become commonplace are disruptive to the flow of NFL games. Photo: zimbio.com

The product that the NFL puts on the field every week is beginning to lose some of its credibility. The rumblings from the fans and the media after each game are getting louder and more frequent. It is time for Roger Goodell to step up to the plate and do the right thing before the replacement refs make a mockery of  the most popular sport in this country. 

Goodell needs to come off of his white horse and fix the mess he has created; and quickly! The fans as well as the players shouldn’t have to suffer because of the commissioner’s ineptitude… 

With Junior Seau’s Death, The Chargers ‘Curse’ Continues…

Posted by fantasyfurnace on May 4, 2012
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 5 Comments

The death on Wednesday of 20 year NFL veteran and 12 time pro-bowler Linebacker Junior Seau, from a fatal gun shot wound to his chest, was shocking to most of us when the news first broke. But, as NFL refs can be heard saying during most games, “upon further review” it seems that his passing was just another in a series of deaths from the ill-fated 1994 AFC champs, the San Diego Chargers.

Former Chargers, Dolphins, and Patriots linebacker Junior Seau, dead at 43. Photo: Elsa/Getty Images

 

Seau, upon his death became the eighth Chargers player from that glorious 1994 season which culminated in their franchises only Super Bowl appearance, and loss, in 1995. None of the players from that team was over 44 years old when they died. Here is the list of all eight:

Junior Seau, LB, 43, on Wednesday, from a gunshot wound to his chest.

Lew Bush, LB, 42, December 2011, apparent heart attack.

Shawn Lee, DT, 44, February 2011, heart attack.

Chris Mims, DE, 38, October 2008, enlarged heart.

Curtis Whitley, C, 39, May 2008, drug overdose.

Doug Miller, LB, 28, July 1998, lightning strike.

Rodney Culver, RB, 26, May 1996, in ValuJet crash, with his wife, Karen.

David Griggs, LB, 28, July 1995, automobile accident.

Besides the pure tradegy of losing so many young and talented players, one cannot help but wonder why so many have perished from the same team. If you are proned to believe in curses, then the 1994 San Diego Chargers team is the poster child for ill-fated ones!

We do not have all of the facts surrounding Junior Seau’s untimely death, but what we do know is that following a physical confrontation with his girlfriend late in 2010, his last in the NFL, he drove off of a cliff. Some claim that it was a suicide attempt. Seau told the police that he ‘fell asleep behind the wheel’.

What we DO know is that several ex-NFLers have died from repeated head trauma and/or concussions which caused them to suffer from such things as depression and dementia, which in many cases lead to suicide. The exact diagnosis of these players was progressive degenerative disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Chicago Bear safety Dave Duerson who took his own life in 2011 also from a gunshot to his chest, suffered from this disease which was discovered after he died through an autopsy which Duerson himself requested prior to taking his life.

The point is that Commissioner Goodell, who has been a leader in the fight for a ‘safer’  NFL for several years now, may be onto something  although he is not without his share of critics and football ‘purists’. They say he’s ‘changing the game’ too much and that the NFL is strictly a ‘quarterback lead, offensively driven’ sport now that so many restrictions have been levied on team’s defenses.

Maybe I am just in the minority, but I watched all 11 post season games this past season which included the Super Bowl, and I did not feel any less entertained or lost any enjoyment from watching them with Goodell’s new edicts in place. Nor did the television audiences who broke several ratings records during the 2011-2012 season.

We’ll have to wait and see what additional information gets uncovered concerning the death of Junior Seau. If he took his life because of the effects of CTE, and part of reducing the liklihood of other players sustaining this disease comes in the form of banning a Jonathan Vilma or any player from any team in the future, then what’s so wrong with possibly saving another player’s life?