The NFL runs the American sports world.
The league is No. 1 among all professional sports in the United States when it comes to revenue, viewership, general interest and essentially anything you can categorize or rank. It’s a monstrous empire.
The man in charge of the entire operation, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, spoke to more than a thousand media members on Friday here in San Francisco at Super Bowl 50. The best word to describe his presser which is probably the NFL’s favorite word as well? Controlled.
The league was in complete and utter control of the entire session. Several members of the media are convinced most of the questions were essentially planted and needed to be asked in a certain order and by certain people.
It started with a softball question about the Rams returning to Los Angeles (hooray!) and immediately went to a reporter from Mexico hoping for an update on the league’s return there. Surprise, surpise, Goodell indeed had good news to deliver on that front: The Raiders and Texans will play south of the border next year. It continued in a similar pattern for 45 minutes or so, without Goodell facing a particularly tough question, before an NFL PR person stepped in and wrapped the uneventful Q&A up.
Here’s the point: Goodell’s session on Friday was more of a propaganda charade than an actual free flowing press conference. The league appeared to be in full control of who was cleared to ask questions and who wasn’t. And why was this precaution taken? Let’s flashback to what happened last year in Arizona at Super Bowl XLIX.
Mile High Sports Magazine feature writer and Denver media personality, D-Mac, had a lot of folks listening closely after asking Goodell a bold (but completely fair) question at that press conference.
“Last year was a disaster. It was a disastrous public image year,” D-Mac told me on Friday afternoon at the Super Bowl 50 media center, citing things like the way Ray Rice’s case was handled and DeflateGate. “So I basically asked him if he could imagine circumstances where he’d resign or be fired.”
Goodell’s answer to the question in Phoenix? “No, I can’t. Does that surprise you?” followed by a long winded, rambling response about all the great things the league was doing.
While Goodell handled D-Mac’s question okay (because he didn’t really answer it) the sheer shock value of the commissioner being asked such a blunt question got the attention of a lot of people — including the NFL.
D-Mac showed up to Friday’s presser 45 minutes early to assure he could get a good seat and be prepared to ask another direct question this year. He had a feeling that chance may never come.
“I was frozen out of asking a question at a Peyton Manning presser earlier this week by the NFL people,” D-Mac said.
On Friday, it happened again.
“Coming into today, I knew what was going on. They check out your credentials, there’s communication among NFL people in terms of who gets to ask a question and I could not have been sitting in an easier place to ask a question. I wasn’t deep in an aisle or anywhere else, I was right there on the end near the people that have the microphone,” D-Mac said.
“It was guy in front of me, guy behind me, guy to my left, guy to my right (that got to ask questions). It wasn’t like I was the only one who didn’t get to ask a question, but I’m the only one in there that has a track record of asking such a confrontational question. So, I think I was blackballed this year. I’m building up a little reputation with the NFL and that’s interesting to say the least.”
D-Mac was slightly coy about what he would have asked Goodell, but the gist revolved around children continuing to play tackle football and how the NFL could possibly feel comfortable with that considering all the concussion research that has emerged recently. Knowing D-Mac, you can bet the question would have gotten some major attention for the way it would have been delivered.
Alas, there was no opportunity. Not for D-Mac and not for a lot of people who may have thrown Goodell off. But that’s exactly how the NFL likes it. They’re an empire, a seemingly impossible fortress to bring down (at least for now) and their need to always be in control took yet another step on Friday.
They’ll also control a large chunk of America on Super Sunday, as more than 115M people will plan their day around the United States’ most popular league — and that’s exactly how Goodell and his kingdom like it.
