NFL Now Must Answer Questions About L.A. Team, Treatment Of Alumni

The NFL Giants' win over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI was “off the charts in fan satisfaction [and] product marketing," yet the NFL, as “successful as it is, has two current big problems -- no team in L.A. and a noisy bunch of angry retirees,” according to Bill Dwyre of the L.A. TIMES. Those two off-field occurrences -- “interesting, revealing and potentially connected -- provide fodder,” and pose the question: “Why not solve both with one wave of the wand?” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Thursday cited both L.A. stadium projects as having "a great deal of potential." He said that the league “wouldn't expand to 33 teams because of scheduling problems of that odd number but said 34 would be workable.” But on Friday Goodell at a news conference “backpedaled.” Dwyre: “Still, there was the germ of a thought there.” Goodell knows he "has a huge problem that isn't going away -- the public perception of NFL treatment of its aging former players,” who produce “a nonstop litany of horror stories.” Sunday’s postgame ceremony included Pro Football HOFer Raymond Berry carrying the Lombardi Trophy to the stage, and the presentation “was another case of the NFL not quite getting it.” Dwyre: “It was supposed to be special. It looked sad, even pathetic. His fellow retirees certainly saw the same thing.” Dwyre suggests the NFL to solve these two problems should “negotiate reasonable expansion fees" from Phil Anschutz and Ed Roski, add "two teams in L.A. that bring a natural rivalry and a hungry new marketplace, and use the expansion money to fund an aggressive and public program to take care of all the old guys” (L.A. TIMES, 2/7).

WHERE TO NOW? In Pittsburgh, Ron Cook writes, “Everything about Goodell's $10 billion-a-year NFL is great, actually. Well, almost everything.” His legacy as one of sports' “great leaders has been secured.” He has taken “the powerful NFL … and made it bigger, stronger and better.” Still, concussions are “the greatest challenge facing Goodell.” Cook: “The NFL and its players need Goodell to keep doing what he's doing. He has been great for the league” (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 2/7). In DC, Dan Daly wrote it is “scary how gigantic the NFL has gotten.” Even in the wake of a lengthy lockout, the league “flourished this season.” But with at least nine more years of labor peace on the horizon, the league “is on the verge of becoming, yes, Too Big to Fail” (WASHINGTON TIMES, 2/6).