The other day in class we were talking about who the best commissioner in sports is. I believe the best commissioner out of the three major sports is NFL commissioner Roger Godell. Since Godell has taken control I believe he has brought a much better sense of professionalism to the game of football. Godell has installed a sense of no tolerance for inappropriate actions on and off the field. If somebody messes up legally or runs into trouble off the field they will hear about it. Roger Godell has made a system which hefty suspensions and fines are given out for violations. A good example of how this has helped players change for the better is Bengals RB Cedric Benson. Benson was involved in a few off field incidents with the Chicago Bears, but has cleaned up his act and become a Pro Bowl caliber player with the Bengals. The NFL has started to clean up its image and the players off the field behaviors are improving. David Stern is also a good commissioner in the NBA and really loves the game and its players. Bud Selig is arguably the worst owner because of how he let steroids ruin baseball, and how he lets the All-Star game decide home field in the World Series unlike any other sport.
I definitely agree with you about Bud Selig being the worst commissioner in sport. As for Roger Goodell, it may be too early to anoint him as the best commissioner, because his tenure has been a lot shorter than the others you have named. He may have some of his biggest challenges ahead of him--e.g., the potential issues with the players' union, in addition to the lack of parity in the league at this time. One of the things for which Pete Rozelle was noted was the parity achieved in the NFL, unlike other leagues. Perhaps that is true today of the top teams, but this year there seem to be more really bad teams, not least of which is the Browns. I am not sure it is the job of the commissioner to fix that, nor can I say how a commissioner might do that. I just wish someone could make the Browns' nightmare end!
ReplyDelete