Being 2-1 is better than being 1-2 if your goal is to make the playoffs and if someone had asked Bills coach Doug Marrone if he would have taken a 2-1 record after the first three games of this year, I would have thought that he'd jump at it. But, in fact, I did make that very offer to him over the Labour Day weekend but he must have found it to be a difficult one to evaluate and, in the end, he neither accepted it or declined it. He did make it known to me that his preference is to simply play the games and see what happens. That's what he's paid to prepare his team for I guess.
In a quarterback dominated league, Philip Rivers was clearly far better yesterday than was EJ Manuel who seemed to take a step or two back yesterday with his weakest performance of the season so far. Rivers and the Chargers offence showed a great ability to extend drives, convert third downs and dominate the time of possession. The Bills secondary looked outmatched as Rivers found wide open targets far too often. I think that the Chargers are going to challenge Denver in the AFC West this season and will turn out to be one of the league's best teams.
The NFL and its Commissioner Roger Goodell have obviously had a bad couple of weeks on the public relations front. Goodell's desire to "make things right" around its handling of domestic abuse on the part of its players and in the creation of a new league policy in that regard, as he stated last week, felt like too little too late. It just isn't plausible that he or the league office was unable to secure the Ray Rice elevator video tape which was obtained (easily, so they say) by TMZ. The league was unwilling to pursue it for obvious reasons but if it can be proven that it was sent to the league office and either shown at high levels or suppressed at lower levels, then Goodell will likely have to go. The "investigation" into this, headed by former FBI Director Robert Mueller, has potential to be a whitewash which could deepen the PR hole that Goodell and the league has dug.
Over the past couple of weeks, as this story has played out, there is no question that the issue of domestic violence - among NFL players and, I would suggest, in society generally - has received considerable media attention and has occupied a more prominent spot in the public discourse than it perhaps ever has. I see this as a good thing. James Brown, host of CBS's NFL studio broadcasts, has, in my opinion, tackled this issue with honesty and integrity in his editorial pieces and in his interviews. When a respected head coach like Tampa Bay's Lovie Smith sat with Brown last week and commented that it hardly needs to be said that its not OK to hit woman, I thought to myself that, unfortunately, it actually does need to be said. There is no question that domestic abuse among NFL players has been minimized, downplayed - ignored - and it seems likely that will now stop. Say what you want about how the league has approached this issue in the past - and there's plenty of valid criticism to go around in the NFL and elsewhere - I firmly believe that there is a societal good in shining a light on it, having it occupy the headlines of the sports pages and the front pages, seeing it discussed on prime time broadcasts with huge audiences - even watching Roger Goodell try to squirm his way to keeping his $44 million a year job over it. Yes, Lovie Smith, it's not OK to hit a woman and we need more people like you to say so.
No comments:
Post a Comment