From JH (@everydayliner):
In case you missed it, the other day, Giants owner John Mara was asked for his reaction to the flex being voted through, and that reaction was pretty sharp. “I’m disappointed,” Mara told NFL Network’s Judy Battista, “but certainly not surprised.”
JH, Mara’s words reflected a hard truth—commissioner Roger Goodell came to Minneapolis this week with an agenda, and, come hell or high water, he was gonna check every box on it.
And Mara has been around long enough to know the outcome he’d get before arriving here.
As the Commanders looming sale hovered over the proceedings, there were two big voting items carried over from the March meeting that drew strong opposition from football folks, as well as the more established ownership groups. Common NFL thought held that the two items had been tabled then (when they lacked the votes to pass) and brought to the May summit because Goodell figured he’d face less resistance at the smaller, more owner-centric spring meeting.
Sure enough, Goodell got his votes. There was still opposition, and strong opposition in some corners, but the measure passed by the minimum margin, 24–8, and the kickoff rule passed by not much more than that (26-5-1). In both cases, money tells the story. On , getting the rule passed, one that has player health-and-safety questions and could screw the most avid fans, was about placating Amazon. On kickoff, it was about having change to point to with a concussion uptick on those plays and legal liability lingering.
I think if this meeting proved anything, it’s that the NFL is being run in a colder, more cutthroat manner than ever before, which makes sense as the league continues to add more tough, ruthless and cunning businessmen to its ownership ranks. And as such, the league is increasingly beholden to the places where the money is coming from (their broadcast partners) and where it can be taken away (the courts).
It wasn’t lost on anyone, by the way, that a smattering of legacy franchises and those owned by families that go back generations in the league (the Giants, Steelers, Bears, Raiders, Lions, Bengals, Packers and Jets were the no’s) voted against the flex. Nor did it go unnoticed that three Super Bowl–winning head coaches (John Harbaugh, Bill Belichick, Sean Payton) backed the special teams coaches’ contention that the kickoff rules change wouldn’t effectively change anything, and could make the plays dangerous.
It’s just that those voices don’t seem to matter nearly as much anymore, which is what Mara was getting at in how he addressed Battista’s question, and implicitly answering yours, too.
