Roger Goodell state of NFL press conference hits on multiple woke agenda items — commentary

My job was to cover Roger Goodell’s position at the NFL press conference and it makes sense because when the league’s chief executive talks, we should all be listening.

And what I saw from some of the reporters covering Goodell and the presser was a complete wake-up call striking the chords of some of today’s hottest topics:

Feminism.

Globalization.

Casteism.

and ageism.

And Goodell’s messaging on these topics clearly picked winners and losers, which is the way the NFL wants to take things forward.

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That’s why women are more valuable than men.

Black is more valuable than white, or brown, or Asian.

It’s more important to keep teams and fans happy overseas than in the United States.

And, finally, youth is more valuable than old.

It was not read between the lines stuff. this was it roger goodell Picking sides and giving your arguments for those sides.

Mother’s role more than father’s?

Start with feminism. Look, women are just as important to the society as men. And the first question from the floor was from Donna Kelce, mother of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Eagles center Jason Kelce.

She asked about the difficulty of raising boys and whether Goodell, one of five brothers, had learned a lesson from her. Mother About raising boys.

Goodell said, “My mother was the biggest influence I’ve ever had on my life.” “She reminds me a lot of you, she had a great sense of humor. She loved being with the five boys most of the time. And I think she was pretty hard on us too.

“She would be the first to criticize us, but she was also the first to ultimately support us. And she would make all of our athletic events, which was a huge chunk of athletic events in seven years with five boys. She encouraged us.” Did it. Participate, compete, and get better. But don’t be afraid to say you fall short.”

And missing from that exchange? Any mention of father.

Goodell did not mention his father, Charles Goodell, who served in Congress and then the United States Senate for a combined 12 years, and was married to Goodell’s mother, Jean, for 24 years until their divorce in 1978.

The fact that paternity didn’t come up at all is because NFL players increasingly come from single-mother households. Many of these athletes don’t have fathers.

And they in turn repeat the cycle of absentee fathers. fathering children out of wedlock And mostly not being present for those kids.

But perhaps the importance of fathers was not mentioned because the importance of the male shouldering the responsibility of fatherhood within a traditional family structure has increasingly become a stereotypical world view that is not needed in this event.

Roger Goodell says NFL officiating is best he’s ever had

Recruitment practice of blacks a major issue

The presser then broached the topic of diversity and minority recruiting. DIfficulty.

Goodell was asked about NFL Media, the league’s media arm, hiring black head coaches, black coordinators, black general managers and even black senior managers or black employees on news desks.

Goodell took about 20 questions from reporters and about a quarter of them — five — related to the hiring of black people or the relative position of black people in sports.

“We have better work and more work ahead of us,” he said. “I think progress has been made and we’re happy to see progress but it’s never enough.”

Goodell is proud of the league’s Accelerator program, which fostered relationships between minority front office candidates and white club owners by putting together two meet-and-greet sessions. New Tennessee Titans GM Ryan Carthon met with Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk at last year’s meeting and it is now considered the gold standard result of the program.

Unsaid is that aspiring white coach and general manager candidates do not get the same opportunity to meet with the owners.

“It’s about attracting the best talent,” Goodell said nonetheless.

Why did it take so long, Roger?

Goodell was asked why it took 57 years for the NFL to reach the point where both starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl are black.

“There are probably many reasons, probably none of them are good,” the commissioner said.

And then Goodell provided a torturous explanation of the advancement of black quarterbacks, unintentionally (I think) using stereotypes as starting points for a true talk about the growing game between Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts.

Goodell said, “I think we have 11 black starting quarterbacks today.” “They are some of the best leaders I have ever seen. They are extraordinary. People talk about their talent and ability to run, but they are incredible leaders.

“They understand the offense, they run complex offenses, maybe more complex than before. And they really add that kind of an element to the game. And I think our game changed because of their talent.” Is.”

Maybe I’m not listening to Goodell’s suggestion that black quarterbacks are mostly supposed to be running quarterbacks, but they are nevertheless smart enough to run complex offenses and have the character to be good leaders.

The idea that football is America’s game is clearly fading as the NFL begins to embrace global expansion. Yes, the reason is money.

Goodell wants the NFL to become a ‘global sport’

Goodell said, “We want to make NFL football a global sport.” “And I think we will continue on this path. We broke every record of our international games this year, whether it was viewership or attendance. The enthusiasm is extraordinary. The biggest challenge is how do we stop it? How can we build the NFL?” Football is a global sport and we are on our way. We’re going to pay a lot of attention to that.”

Goodell said that we will “at least see more games” in Germany because “it’s moving the ball forward for us.”

However, this hasn’t gotten the ball rolling for USA teams that are abandoning home games to play abroad. And American fans don’t like losing home games to London or Germany or Mexico.

The globalist approach also isn’t “moving the ball forward” enough for American cities like San Antonio, Orlando, St. Louis and perhaps even San Diego that have heard Goodell talk about Possible expansion with a European division, But he hasn’t said anything about expanding to the United States.

So, yes, globalism over nationalism.

Goodell wants fans to be young, not old

Finally, if you’re old enough to have attended Super Bowl XXV in 1990, you’re a dinosaur by NFL standards. And the league doesn’t value you as much as it does the 20-something.

That’s why the league has moved its Thursday games to Amazon Prime and its Sunday Ticket to YouTube.

“When we went to a different platform, we were intentionally going to a different platform,” Goodell said. “We understood, in our view, that this was a growing platform to reach fans who were not watching football on traditional networks.

“And when we made that move, it was solely to focus on being on that growing platform and reaching that younger demographic that wasn’t really watching broadcast television. And it worked. It really I anticipated.”

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Goodell said that Amazon’s broadcast has reduced the average age of its viewers by about 10 years.

“That’s,” Goodell said, “exactly what we’re looking for.”