Much is made of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s responsibility to “protect the shield” whenever a new incident of player misbehavior comes up. Whether on the field or off, players who run afoul of the league risk unpredictable and indiscriminate punishment.
It often comes down to the league’s so-called personal conduct policy, which gives Goodell the authority to institute seemingly whatever action he chooses. But as former New England Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham notes, the commissioner has yet to be held to a conduct policy of his own.
“The facts of the Ray Rice investigation are clearly visible in the rear view mirror: Commissioner Roger Goodell failed miserably in his ultimate job to ‘protect the shield,’ received no personal punishment of any kind, and then expanded his powers through an updated personal conduct policy,” Chatham writes on FootballbyFootball.com.
“How the hell did that happen?” he adds. “This sequence of events should be the first entry in urbandictionary.com under ‘WTF.'”
As you might have gleaned, Chatham is no supporter of the actions Goodell has taken on Deflategate.
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