ESPN's Olbermann Slams Goodell, Says He Replaces Blatter As World's Worst Sports Exec

ESPN's Keith Olbermann yesterday again took several shots at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, saying with FIFA President Sepp Blatter's resignation on Tuesday, Goodell now has ascended "to the position of the world's worst sports executive." Olbermann noted there were "many candidates" to supplant Blatter on the list, but for "sheer percentage of how much of the stuff he deals with he screws up, Roger Goodell is in a class by himself." Goodell in a letter to the NFLPA "managed to confirm that (NFL Exec VP/Football Operations) Troy Vincent's suspension of Tom Brady was really Roger Goodell’s suspension of Tom Brady, thus confirming the terrible optics of the commissioner being the judge in a case and the jury and then also being the appeals court judge in the same case." Olbermann then went on to detail Goodell's shortfalls in several incidents, including the fact he "destroyed the videotape" in Spygate and "investigated and reinvestigated Pacman Jones so often Jones might as well have had an office at NFL quarters." He "mailed it in just seeking the videotape in the Ray Rice case, and he interviewed Rice and his victim together, destroying that investigation." Goodell "dragged his feet on the Michael Vick dogfighting nightmare waiting for the authorities," though he later "superseded the authorities by punishing Ben Roethlisberger when there would never be charges." Olbermann: "He led the owners to opt out of the labor deal even though it was almost 100% owner-friendly, then led them to lock the players out even though the league was taking in $8 billion a year."

MORE SHOTS FIRED: Olbermann continued, saying that Goodell has appeared to be "more concerned with how and how much NFL players celebrated then, say, how much NFL players’ brains melted due to post-concussion trauma." Olbermann: "After finally improving on the brain damage front, he proudly announced a $760 million settlement in that case only to see it rejected by the judge. After it was rejected, he still seemed more concerned with whether or not Marshawn Lynch could be forced to talk to the media than whether or not ex-players could, you know, still talk." Goodell has let "another generation of owners use the phrase ‘I'm going to move to move to Los Angeles’ as a threat to get taxpayer money siphoned into new stadiums and old stadium improvements," and he was "far tougher on Josh Gordon and Justin Blackmon for substance abuse than he was on Jim Irsay.” Olbermann concluded by saying, "Roger, you did all that? What a guy. He is the man. In fact, if you think about it, he is the man to succeed Sepp Blatter as the head of the well-oiled corruption machine that is FIFA. There’s only one problem. The latest salary figure we have for Roger Goodell is about $44 million a year. Well, even the high end of the latest best estimate of the tightly guarded secret that is Sepp Blatter’s salary is only around $12 million a year” (“Olbermann,” ESPN2, 6/3).