The National Football League Players Association took its customary knee at the feet of its employers, this time conceding on most of the big points in exchange for a slightly larger piece of the smaller piece of the pie — for another 11 years. Two more teams make the playoffs, the league gets a 17th game as soon as next year, and Roger The Mall Cop has less to do when it comes time to yell at the employees.
There are lots of codicils and whatnots in the deal, but general impression is that players at the lower end of the scale got a bit more, but that's at first glance before the small print starts eating at them at the same rate it always has. The National Football League never does deals that aren't thoroughly advantageous for the National Football League. But the players signed it, so they're going to have to eat it with the same lack of relish they've eaten the others.
Here, though, is the interesting part. Because the deal is 11 years in duration, this is one less thing on Goodell's workaday bucket list before he officially becomes a figurehead, or a retiree in the making. The other is the next media deal, which will be massive, and massively complicated. It will keep the Ginger Avenger busy, at least for awhile, and then when that's been done, there will be nothing compelling to keep him from calling it quits with his nearly $500 million in accumulated salary. By the time 2030 rolls around, he'll be 71 years old and probably sick to death of owners, players, media executives, fans and ancillary mammals. He will be the best compensated and least admired of commissioners (at least until all the votes on Rob Manfred are counted), and he will have learned that working for billionaires is as crummy as working for anyone else, even the self-employed ones.
Goodell's contract runs through 2023, but the media deal is the last thing he actually needs to get done. After that, he can sail the Atlantic coast with one hand while holding G&Ts with the other. he can do whatever he wants to do, from charity work to hand sanitizer hoarding, and leave the job of alphabetizing the money to someone else who will have less to do and therefore less to earn. Hell, there may not even be a need for a commissioner at all, given that Goodell's public appearances have diminished dramatically over the years as his approval ratings have gone all Detroit Lions-y.
Frankly, Goodell's value through the years was to:
(a) Not be Paul Tagliabue, at which he succeeded.
(b) Bring back discipline to the players, at which he succeeded until he bollixed up the Ray Rice case and all succeeding cases.
(c) Teach the New England Patriots proper behavior, at which he has clearly failed.
(d) Make money for the company, at which he has clearly succeeded.
In short, the NFL needs a commissioner only to be a human shield for the 32 owners when they or their employees do something stupid, illegal or both, because the real reasons to pay a commissioner are already done. You can hire an Official Face and call it a day — maybe one of the owners' children, or all of them on a rotating basis. It'll be a nice line on the resume, it'll keep the business in the family, and the hard stuff you can contract out through lawyers.
So maybe that's the real development of the new deal — to give us Roger's sell-by date and look for a new figurehead who will truly be a figurehead. Maybe the owners will try to sign Payton Manning, or trade for Al Michaels, or Frank Caliendo because they think he's the cutting edge of comedy, or maybe just an animatronic puppet for the kids. It won't matter. Roger Goodell is surely the last commissioner to make forty extra large a year, and he might even be the last commissioner, period.
I mean, anyone can direct deposit a check from Amazon, right?