Tagliabue vacated the Bountygate suspensions today.
The joke is (basically) complete. The NFL now has no power over players who either choose to or follow orders to cripple other players in a systematic (and, hence, a non-systematic) manner.
And, on surface, everyone is going to cheer. Vilma is going to get millions in his lawsuit, Goodell basically has carte blanche over the other players (current and former) who have the audacity to now understand how much they can be crippled on any play, and the fans want their Roman Colosseum.
This is a disgusting ruling to anyone with a brain. Of course, to how many people that applies, vis-a-vis the NFL anymore, is a matter of great dispute.
The only thing that probably is going to remain in question is two-fold:
1) Is Roger Goodell going to be allowed to remain commissioner?
If he is, it's the final joke in all of this, and the joke is on us who have rational thought.
Because it will be the final confirmation that this whole Kabuki Theatre was a matter of that he wanted to pass the buck to someone who was "outside the league" enough that enough of the little animal sheeple who prostrate themselves to the NFL shield would be fooled.
I'll get to them in a second.
2) What power does he have to deal with players, on or off the field?
None, and that's what all other parties want.
Let's get two things straight right now:
The NFL players, by and large, have taken too many blows to the head over the course of lower-level, high-school, college, and NFL football to retain much human rationality, compassion, or, really, anything else. The game drives these "men" to become animals, and many can't shut it off.
And, on top of this, I truly believe many NFL fans would like to see people get killed on the field, and not just that euphemistic "Kill The Bum!!!" we've all yelled out of the stands against an opposing player.
The thing is, to give the fans what they want, the "New Sheriff" needs to be deposed. Not as a function that Goodell is not an open co-participant in the allowance of on and off the field violence, mind you. But as a final statement as to what these bloodlust-y animals in the stands really want (and, many would say, that they NEED), Goodell is probably going to have to be tossed as Commissioner to satisfy the fans who aren't smart enough to know he's part of the problem, not that firing him is part of the solution.
The fans openly blame Goodell for the "Pussification of Football", and the Vilma lawsuit (in which he now should get, at minimum, his 2012 salary trebled plus damages) would be a perfect avenue to get it done.
The worst part of all this is that this gives the final piece of the puzzle to all of the thousands of former players who should literally get, between them, billions (and trebled) from this league. Every claim that the NFL has no regard for their safety is true. Every claim that they've made that the risks are mis-represented (if not ignored) has merit and value.
They should get every dollar, and trebled.
They won't.
Two reasons.
First is what might as well be a formal legal concept of precedent: Courts will never rule, even when all the evidence makes it the only rational ruling, in favor of something which will cause massive social disruption.
There is no larger social entity in this country than the National Football League. To fundamentally change the game to make it safer would be such a massive social disruption that riots would probably result. So to actually care about player safety may almost be equivalent to cutting off welfare benefits, frankly.
The second reason is the dehumanization, on a very real level, of the players. The players basically, by the time they get to the pros, are probably mangled in a number of ways to begin with. That they made it "this far" makes them believe they are truly indestructible.
In this vein, what right do they have to later come back and talk of the risks when the entire culture of football relies that they aren't even really to be considered human in the first place?
That's what is so disgusting about this. The Player Safety and Player Conduct Initiatives are now not only jokes, even to Goodell, but, on surface, illegal. The entire concept that the players of this league are to be held to human standards of conduct is a farcical view, since the players are nothing more than inhuman pieces of meat to basically die in the "New Roman Collosseum".
Because that's all what the NFL (and much of football) is -- a "New Roman Collosseum". Makes you wonder when the weapons are going to come out.
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