We didn’t need Gloria Allred hogging the camera to realize Roger Goodell dropping the ball on domestic violence cases created a systemic problem so bad he should resign.
Yet there was Allred, the attention-seeking celebrity lawyer, calling a news conference Wednesday to exploit the national negativity surrounding the NFL because that’s what media opportunists do. Allred loudly accused Goodell and the Broncos of ignoring complaints from the father and friend of wide receiver Brandon Marshall’s former girlfriend — in 2007.
Reasonable people can abhor domestic violence and still object to Allred dredging up an incident from seven years ago for which the NFL disciplined Marshall, now with the Bears. Perhaps Goodell’s suspension of Marshall should have been longer than three games — which was reduced to one. Perhaps local law-enforcement authorities who were reluctant to chargeMarshall should have been the target of Allred’s ire. Perhaps Marshall was an uncontrollable menace before he sought professional help in 2011 to change his behavior.
None of that past provided fair or accurate context for judging Marshall in the present, which Allred invited America to do now without acknowledging the different person Chicago has gotten to know since he arrived in 2012. As Bears general manager Phil Emery said in a statement, Marshall “has thrived in an environment that has been supportive.”
All Allred’s publicity stunt accomplished was divert attention away from two significant league developments that said more about Goodell’s diminished ability to lead than something he didn’t do seven years ago. Instead of the NFL disciplining Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and Panthers linebacker Greg Hardy for their respective heinous acts of domestic abuse, Goodell weakly let two teams do the league’s dirty work.
Both the Vikings and Panthers placed their troubled stars on the obscure NFL Exempt/Commissioner’s Permission list, a shrewd bureaucratic move that takes both players off the field indefinitely. Both vested veterans will receive their entire 2014 salaries because they were on the roster Week 1, meaning the Vikings and Panthers collectively will spend $1.5 million per week to make Peterson and Hardy go away. You can call that exorbitant. I call it money well spent.
Just once during a crisis, it would be nice for the NFL to act proactively in the name of integrity rather than react to protect its business interests. Goodell’s baffling silence over Peterson and Hardy reinforced the idea that he lost credibility as a leader for the way he bungled the Ray Rice affair.
His inadequate response to Wednesday’s news: Two prepared, perfunctory statements the league office released separately. Five days after Peterson was indicted for disciplining his 4-year-old son with a switch badly enough to bleed, we have yet to hear anything from Goodell.
Thanks to angry sponsors and upset politicians in Minnesota, we finally heard from Vikings owner Zygi Wilf. Very early Wednesday morning, Wilf did something that made it easier for him to sleep at night.
In a stunning change of course, Wilf released a statement on the Vikings’ Web site at 12:47 a.m. Wednesday that officially removed Peterson from all team activities until his legal issues are resolved. That could be 2015, meaning we perhaps have seen the last of Peterson in a No. 28 Vikings jersey. Who said nothing good happens after midnight?
The Vikings made the right move even if it came at the wrong time. The right time would have been Monday instead of trotting Vikings general manager Rick Spielman out in front of microphones the day after a bad loss to awkwardly explain Peterson’s reinstatement. On that day, Spielman denied it was a football decision and strongly defended the move under the guise of due process, an insult to the intelligence of everybody who heard it — including sponsors of the team apparently.
Radisson became the first sponsor to pull out but not the last. Soon, local Nike stores started pulling Peterson merchandise off the shelves. Public pressure intensified when Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton — who stood next to Wilf when they broke ground on a new $1 billion Vikings stadium that included $498 million in public financing — called for Peterson’s suspension. When the Vikings called their second news conference in three days to reverse Monday’s decision, it was a victory for common sense even if fear of lost sponsorships sparked the rally.
Whatever compelled the Vikings and Panthers, the remedies represented the show of strength both situations lacked, the direction Goodell has failed to provide. Now that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who represents a San Francisco district, has called for the 49ers to sit defensive tackle Ray McDonald while he’s being investigated for domestic abuse, you wonder if either Goodell or team officials will respond.
Or maybe Allred will surface soon in northern California to make better use of her time than she did Wednesday.
Twitter @DavidHaugh
