Roger Goodell has been the most criticized member in the NFL in recent years and for very good reason. His inconsistency on rulings has turned a lot of people against him. He’s weakened the rulebook of the league and to top it all off he’s paid nearly 50 million dollars a year. It is time for the NFL to move on from Roger Goodell.

Goodell took office in 2006 and one of his first orders of business was suspending Adam “Pacman” Jones for an entire season. This was a nice surprise for NFL fans at the time because Jones was a problem off the field and the punishment fit the crime.

Goodell continued this method of fair treatment for a few years, but then came the recent fines and suspensions. Josh Gordon violated the NFL’s drug policy for the third time in his short career and was handed a one year suspension, which he later switched to a 12 game suspension. Ray Rice was charged with domestic violence and suspended for four games, which was later changed to a lifetime ban. Adrian Peterson pled no contest to a misdemeanor count of child abuse and was suspended indefinitely, which ended up being just under one season.

Also penalties have gone up under Roger Goodell. Everyone has noticed this and it is directly related to Roger Goodell’s need to “Clean up” the perfectly clean league. Whether it be eliminating hits near the knees or celebrating for more than five seconds, the rules have added a lot of penalties, which then turn to points. This also adds to the time of the game. Game time has increased significantly over the past three seasons and it is solely because of penalties.

The NFL–more specifically, Roger Goodell–covered up the Ray Rice case for some reason. No one knows for sure, but the problem isn’t why, the problem is that it happened. The person in charge of a respectable organization should not be connected to scandals like that. Roger Goodell kept information from the rest of the league and the public.

The commissioner of the NFL decides how much they make, and the owners of the league pay it. It’s always been like that and commissioners were fair and just when deciding their salaries. No commissioner ever made more than 12 million dollars in a season, until Roger Goodell that is. Every single season his salary has increased, but last year it jumped up to 44.2 million dollars. Yes, you read that right. 44.2 million dollars a season!

This abuse of power is outlandish for a commissioner. Most people, myself included, say that Goodell is the worst commissioner in league history. It’s time for the owners to vote Goodell out and go in a different, less scandalous direction.

Well argued–MVP

JNR – I really like this article. You coverage plethora of various Goodell scandals. Awesome work.