The NFL Drops The Ball

The NFL is making headlines and not for the right reasons. Since the end of last football season there have been multiple suspensions and now incredible unrest with commissioner Roger Goodell. The rulings on the suspensions and the ways that some of them have been handled are causing outrage on social media. Two cases in particular were handled very poorly by the league, Josh Gordon's one year suspension and Ray Rice's apparent ban.

Josh Gordon of the Cleveland Browns is one of the most talented receivers in the NFL when he is healthy and eligible to play. He puts up insane stats each and every week and that has been with arguably the worst string of quarterbacks in the league throwing the ball to him. Although he is one of the best players in the NFL, Gordon has had a history of marijuana use, which is part of the leagues substance abuse policy. In the offseason, Gordon was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, as a repeat offender of the substance abuse policy he was subject to a one year suspension. The reason this case irritates me is not in how it was handled but in the policy itself. If a player for the Broncos or Seahawks (teams in states where marijuana is legal) gets caught in possession of marijuana, there is no criminal charge, therefore no suspension from the league. That needs to be fixed, how can something that is legal in some states cost a professional athlete a year of his career in his prime? And apparently in the eyes of Roger Goodell, having marijuana in a car is worse than beating your wife senseless and dragging her out of a casino elevator. Now because of an extremely flawed "justice system" in the NFL, the only possession Josh Gordon will have this year is not of a football.

The Ray Rice domestic violence fiasco is single handily destroying the already shaky integrity of the NFL. For a sport that essentially runs America, the NFL has an incredibly poor reputation for off-field cases and issues. This Ray Rice scandal is not only a loss for the Ravens but for the entire league. Everyone knows and has seen what happened in the elevator and the drag afterwards with Ray Rice and his "wife", but the outrage has reached its peak this week. Originally Rice was suspended for two games and then a league policy of a six game suspension was put in place for first time offenders of the domestic violence policy. It took TMZ releasing a "new unseen" video for Goodell to take a firm stand and now there are more investigations being launched by the NFL than by the CIA. The fact that you can beat your wife and miss 6 games but you miss a year for marijuana is wrong on so many levels. NFL players are big strong guys that tackle and are very aggressive on the field but it appears there is a serious problem with players not being able to keep the aggressiveness on the field. Rice is not the only player facing charges of domestic violence, Ray McDonald of the 49ers and Greg Hardy of the Panthers have also been offenders of the domestic violence policy. With all of the negative vibes surrounding Roger Goodell many people are demanding that he step down or be fired. Instead of trying to positively grow the sport of football, Goodell is too busy fining Jame Harrison for hits 4 years ago and trying to change the Redskins name. With the amount of investigations the NFL has had in the last few years, these lawyers in the league have seen more action than Matt Leinart. Roger Goodell is driving the NFL into the ground faster than can have press conferences for. My brothers 6th grade teacher has better discipline skills than Goodell and he needs to be fired or resign immediately. With an industry as big as the NFL in this country this could be the new Watergate.