This “Tricolored Tumult” blog pertains to issues of equality – or the lack thereof. In this post, I discuss how a negative equality that is perceived as evening the playing field for all is, in fact, a deceptive monotony in lack of effort – specifically, with regard to the National Football League, or NFL.
In recent weeks, as the league’s playoffs have taken place and fans nationwide have tuned in to see which teams – yes, as we now know, the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams – would play in the highly-anticipated Super Bowl LIII, the NFL has attempted to boost its brand. I, for one, have noticed numerous league commercials advocating for increased helmet safety and concussion avoidance; the revival of football in inner cities; and the epic showdown that is to take place between the Patriots and Saints on Sunday evening in Atlanta.
What I believe matters most, however, is what wasn’t said or advertised.
Commissioner Roger Goodell held his annual Super Bowl press conference this week in Atlanta, and he was far from explicit in addressing the topic that reporters were pursuing most aggressively:
On Sunday, January 20, the New Orleans Saints were robbed of a spot in the Super Bowl when the sideline and on-field referees failed to call a blatant defensive pass interference penalty on the Los Angeles Rams’ Nickell Robey-Coleman, who visibly pushed the Saints’ Tommylee Lewis to the ground.
Part of the league’s explanation pertaining to the non-call was that overturning such an officiating mistake would contradict league policy. While the Goodell does technically possess the authority to overturn calls given league rules – as Saints star wide receiver Michael Thomas pointed out – his choice not to is wholly based on image preservation.
This is where the issue of equality versus monotony comes in.
Monotony, vis-à-vis the NFL, signifies maintaining a status quo such that hordes of fans watch the Draft and the Super Bowl every year. As difficult as it is for me to admit as a baseball fan and player, football has become America’s new national pastime simply because so many people watch it. The NFL is the league that “owns a day of the week [Sunday],” to borrow a line from the 2015 Will Smith movie Concussion.
Goodell has been so ineffective during his tenure as commissioner because he has sought to preserve a status quo that was never truly established. This perceived equality of interest and involvement among all American households is what the NFL is desperately trying to retain. Repeated inaction does not amount to inequality; rather, it is monotony and redundancy.
The status quo that Goodell wants to maintain is his own: one of passive compliance with those who matter most to him – the fans. Their support of the league never arose through politics, for it came about thanks to the players. Bart Starr, Roger Staubach, Brett Favre, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Jerry Ric, Deion Sanders, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady are only a few of the names who propelled the NFL to national prominence. Goodell and league officials became so perturbed about the concussion issue, the Kaepernick kneeling debate, and football’s tenuous future that they adopted their rhetoric to a style of vague non-answers. Damage control and limitations on controversy are the NFL’s aims.
Somehow, the league believes that taking decisive standpoints on key issues will go to its detriment. This philosophy infuriates me, for I know that I, for one, will not stop watching my hometown Redskins or the Super Bowl because of something that Goodell says. The press is capitalizing on Goodell’s monotony and general lack of clarity, and I believe this is a positive trend. Singling out the league lets people know that their interests are being fairly represented, and that what matters is what we all see: the plays that happen on the field, not the brouhaha off it.
Alright, I digress. It pains me that the NFL is so hesitant to appear politically-inclined that it can’t even be clear on important issues.
Such issues include fans in New Orleans being upset over their team’s season ending, possibly prematurely. Goodell’s failure to address the possibility of overturning the call or replaying the game was ineffective because it did not offer closure to incredulous fans (nationwide, not just in Louisiana) and players (many of whom, from teams who have already been eliminated, took to Twitter to express their astonishment at the non-call last weekend). The NFL’s face-saving protocol is not working. Whereas I may be consistent in method, it is far from successful in practice. Now, it is time for the league to deliver, for the popularity of the game itself likely does not need TV ads to remain sky-high. Indeed, the Rams-Saints game proved, once again, that the NFL cannot take action when it matters most.
Ultimately, the referees emulated the league, for under pressure in crunch time, they were equal in inaction.
Image Credit
NFL fans were stunned by Saints-Rams officials' egregious no-call on a clear pass interference
Saints receiver Michael Thomas refuted Roger Goodell's explanation for blown no-call