Roger Goodell didn’t show up in September 2015 when the New England Patriots unveiled their Super Bowl XLIX banner before their regular-season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Quite frankly, the NFL commissioner has no clue when he’ll return to Gillette Stadium.
Gary Myers, an NFL columnist for the New York Daily News, asked Goodell this week during a sitdown interview for WFAN’s “Chalk Talk” show when he plans to attend a game in Foxboro. The commissioner responded like he’s not afraid to cross enemy lines, but he also didn’t sound too thrilled about the question.
“I don’t know, Gary,” Goodell said. “I’ll go wherever I need to go.”
As you might have heard, Goodell isn’t well liked in New England after coming down hard on quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots organization for Deflategate. So even though Brady is back under center and the Patriots again look like championship contenders, it might be best if Goodell stays away. Otherwise, he’ll be booed mercilessly, though the same probably could be said for a lot of stadiums across the NFL given the commissioner’s questionable track record.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth, and I certainly don’t look at my job as that,” Goodell said during the interview when someone from the audience suggested that many feel like his top priority is to make more money for the NFL owners. “My job is to continue to grow the game, protect the game and make the game better. Ultimately, if you do that, that’s what your job is. That’s why I react the way I do.
“My job is to protect the integrity of the game. Yes, you want to grow the game. Yes, you want to make the game better for the players and the owners and the coaches and the fans, and that’s not always something that’s met with unanimous support, OK? What you do is you do what you think is right.
“Now, a lot of times I don’t have the full authority to do things. As I mentioned, several things we do by the votes of the 32 clubs. There’s a tremendous amount of input. There’s procedures and processes in our collective bargaining agreement, and so you do what you think is right, and I don’t really worry about the criticism, frankly.”
Even if Goodell doesn’t return to Foxboro anytime soon, there’s a legitimate chance he’ll be forced to hand the Lombardi Trophy to Brady, Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft and Co. (again) come February. What a sight that would be.
Thumbnail photo via Jason Getz/USA TODAY Sports Images
