Reading Marima's links today, as I do every morning as I settle in for another day of staring aimlessly at my computer as the clock ticks slowly towards quitting time, I was pleased to read yet another open letter to Roger Goodell from RobbieJ over at PatriotsAllAccess. Having written one myself a few weeks back, I couldn't help but smile at how many sentiments RobbieJ and I shared in our criticism of the job Goodell is currently doing, and I was glad to see someone else express his opinion on an open forum.
It also got me thinking about whether or not there are other such letters out there that are similar in nature; after all, Pats fans can't be the only ones who aren't happy with the Commish's current regime, right? So I did a quick Google search for "Open Letter to Roger Goodell"... and I was certainly not disappointed. Fans from all over the league have voiced their displeasure with Goodell, as well as others who prefer to take issues like domestic violence and child abuse more seriously than...oh, say...0.5 PSI in a football, and those people have made sure to make their opinion known. And so I thought it would be helpful, on the off-chance that Goodell actually reads this, to have the letters that have been written to him all in one convenient place. A series of bonus links, if you will.
- RobbieJ at PatriotsAllAccess writes about Goodell's horrible decision making here.
- Matthew Stevens over at Baltimore Beatdown talks Goodell, fantasy football, and false accusations here.
- Professor Lester Grinspoon, MD over at Harvard Medical School writes a letter to Goodell takes Goodell to task over coming down so hard on marijuana use here.
- Belle Britta, who couldn't care less about football, expresses her disgust over Goodell's tenure here.
- Longtime fan Donovan69 laments that Goodell is the reason that he may have watched his last Super Bowl here.
- Rich Levine over at CSSNE was one of the original letter writers; his words from the summer of 2015 can be found here.
- Matt Prisco at TheWalkOffSports Blog, which covers all facets of all sports, implores Goodell to get his act together here.
- T.H.E. Strawman's open letter makes my sarcasm meter look truly pathetic; check it out here.
- Another snarky letter highlighting how the un-PC names like the Saints, Giants, and Patriots are ruining the integrity of the game from 101sports.com here.
- Former NFL wife and domestic violence survivor Marcia Mount Shoop lets Goodell know what she thinks of his decision making here.
- Cmaher44 of Arrowhead Pride tries to figure out why the Chiefs got docked draft picks here.
- My letter to Goodell, suggesting that maybe he should replace the word "integrity" with "consistency," can be found here.
These are just the first two pages of the Google search, and only go back a few years. There are plenty more where that came from, from people from all walks of life, and the message is more or less the same: we don't like you, you're bad at your job, and you need to go.
At the end of the day, the NFL is a business, We all know that. And the best way to get a business to change its practices is to stop giving that business your money. We as fans hold all the power in that if we stop watching, changes will be made. But that isn't going to happen. We're all in it too deep. We're going to keep giving this league and it's incompetent commissioner our money. And because of that, it's tough to really take any stance on Goodell without being seen as something of a hypocrite. However, when all voices from all over the country have the same thing to say, it would behoove Goodell to at least pay attention.
That, or just go full heel and come out and say he only has the interests of the owners and the business side in mind and is going to leave the game and the players in the hands of the NFLPA. At least that would be honest.