Roger Goodell’s 5 Worst Moves as NFL Commissioner

In August 2024, we surpassed the 18th anniversary since Roger Goodell became the commissioner of the 

NFL . It was back in 2006 that he started his time in charge of the league, and he’s had quite an eventful tenure. Through that time, he’s become one of the most polarizing figures in all sports.

It’s become clear that he’s well-loved by the owners of the league, and the NFL circle as a whole. He was unanimously selected to become the commissioner back in 2006, signaling the fact that he was well-liked by the most important higher-ups in the league at the time of his arrival in his new role.

He’s been around for nearly two full decades now, which surely wouldn’t have happened had he drawn the ire of the NFL’s owners. As of now, there’s been nothing to suggest the idea that his job is in jeopardy, so he seems to be in a comfortable position with them.

GIVEMESPORT Key Stat: Roger Goodell has been the league’s commissioner for a very long time. He recently signed an extension to keep him in his current role through 2027. If he continues through the 2035 season, he’ll become the longest-tenured commissioner in the history of the league, surpassing Pete Rozelle, who held the role from 1960-1989.

However, his reputation among the league’s fans and players could not be more different.

Goodell has made multiple moves during his career that have lost him popularity with the league’s massive fan base, and that’s a trend that’s remained constant for quite some time now. There’s a reason he hears boo birds every time he announces a pick during the NFL Draft .

With this all in mind, let’s take a look at five of his absolute worst moves during his time as the league’s commissioner.

1Thursday Night Football/17-Game Season

Goodell sacrificed player safety in the name of yet another night of football

Right now, Thursday Night Football is something even Roger Goodell isn’t happy with.

Look, saying no to the idea of an extra night of football on your television can be a hard thing to do. However, Thursday Night Football remains the worst decision Goodell has made, simply because of the massive risk to player safety that it provides.

One of the best linebackers to ever play the game, Ray Lewis , gave his blunt opinion on it years ago:

The worst thing you’ve ever put in sports.

Keep in mind, that’s a quote from one of the most physical, hardest-hitting linebackers in the game. If he doesn’t think the quick turnaround from a Sunday game to a Thursday night game during the next week is a good idea, it feels difficult to argue with that opinion.

More football is something Goodell has attempted to provide for fans throughout his time in his current role, despite numerous concerns from players and those very same fans. He was the driving factor behind the league’s push to expand the regular season to 17 games instead of 16, with teams losing a week of the preseason as a result.

In the same vein, Goodell has also been adamant in his stance that the league should expand the regular season further still, to 18 games, which the players are not happy with. While there aren’t any guarantees of that happening just yet, based off the league’s recent adjustment to a 17-game season, and Goodell’s seemingly stubborn intent to extend the season further, it’s something that looks increasingly likely in the near future.

Ultimately, Goodell seems willing to sacrifice player safety for the chance of a longer season, and that’s been arguably his worst move so far as commissioner.

His intention to extend the season also goes against his purported purpose of increasing safety in the game, with a laundry list of rules changes coming during his tenure, many of which have been implemented under the guise of player safety.

However, based on his obsession with an 18-game season, it’s far more likely that these rules changes were made not in the name of player safety, but in the hopes of increasing offensive output on the field, which increases profits for the league.

2‘Spygate’

This is an iconic piece of NFL lore, and it’s one Goodell severely mishandled

First, let’s set the stage.

Back in the beginning of the 2007 season, the New York Jets accused the New England Patriots , specifically head coach Bill Belichick , of authorizing a member of his staff to film the Jets’ defensive signals from the field, which was a clear violation of NFL rules.

A couple of days later, Belichick seemed to essentially confirm the accusation, and gave an apology to “all those who have been affected”. Later that week, Goodell forced the Patriots to hand over the tapes and all other materials related to the incident.

So, when did Goodell make the wrong decision?

Well, the Patriots didn’t really want to hand over those tapes, and they refused to ever let the tapes leave their premises. As a result, Goodell ordered league officials to go into the Patriots facilities and smash the tapes. Yes, you read that right: Goodell intentionally ordered key evidence during a massive scandal to be destroyed.

This was a very bad look for the NFL. There was a later report from The Boston Herald claiming that the team had done something similar before their Super Bowl victory against the Los Angeles Rams (St. Louis at the time), years prior. Essentially, the size and scope of the Patriots’ actions will never really be known, because of Goodell’s senseless decision.

Now, this could be considered a conspiracy theory, and it’s important to note that this is speculation. However, in 2015, ESPN published an article which claimed Goodell downplayed the whole ‘Spygate’ situation to help out New England’s owner, Robert Kraft, who was allegedly a large part of the reason Goodell got his job as commissioner just one year prior.

At the end of the day, Goodell severely mishandled this situation. Coincidentally, it might have led to his next bad decision…

3‘Deflategate’

Another Patriots scandal, another instance of Goodell making the wrong decision

Next on the list is yet another Patriots scandal, although the likelihood that the Patriots benefited from this one is much smaller than the ‘Spygate’ scandal.

The root of the scandal stemmed from the 2014 AFC Championship game, when the Patriots demolished the Indianapolis Colts 45-7. In the first half, the Colts intercepted Brady, and the team kept the ball, then notified the league’s game day operations that there could have been a problem with the inflation-level of the ball, claiming that the ball was under-inflated.

Aside from that, no issues were raised. There was never any verifiable evidence that the balls were under-inflated, and the player who intercepted Brady, D’Qwell Jackson, even stated that he didn’t think the ball would have provided an advantage:

I wouldn’t know how that could even be an advantage or a disadvantage… I definitely wouldn’t be able to tell if one ball had less pressure than another.

According to a report from The Boston Herald, the balls were found to be properly inflated before the second half of the game began. The Patriots went on a 28-0 run in the second half, proving the balls likely had no significance behind their win.

Nonetheless, Brady was suspended for the first four games of the 2015 season, and the Patriots had to give up their 2016 first round pick, as well as their 2017 fourth round pick, although there was never any credible evidence that linked Brady, or the organization with any tampering of the game balls.

In 2024, at the end of his Netflix Roast, Brady seemingly admitted to deflating the balls, but at that point, the damage had been done.

Many speculate that the backlash Goodell received from his lack of action during ‘Spygate’ led to his overreaction to ‘Deflategate’.

4Ray Rice Suspension

Goodell’s decision was just flat-out ugly, and his attempt to recover from it was worse

At the time of Ray Rice’s incident, he was one of the best running backs in football, making this a massive scandal.

Rice spent a string of seasons as one of the best players in the NFL, before his own actions led it all to crash down on him. In February 2014, Rice was arrested in Atlantic City for domestic violence after striking his then-fiancee.

The police report stated that Rice was accused of assault with intent to cause bodily harm by striking her with his hand, which left her unconscious, then dragging her away from the scene. Goodell had seen this very police report, giving him the knowledge that Rice knocked his fiancée unconscious.

His response? To suspend Rice for two games… for knocking his girlfriend unconscious. Then, a horrifying video came out, showing the exact same thing that the police report in which Goodell saw described. Once outrage from the video hit the NFL, Goodell tried to save face by suspending Rice indefinitely. It turns out he didn’t even have the authority to do that, and Rice would later win a lawsuit for that exact reason.

Goodell saw a report proclaiming that a high-profile NFL player knocked his fiancée out, then dragged her body away. He responded with an egregiously light punishment. Once a video came out that proved exactly what happened in that police report, he tried to save face by taking action he was not authorized to take.

Incompetence would be an extremely generous way to describe Goodell’s actions here.

5Terrelle Pryor Suspension

The suspensions of Pryor and Rice should tell you everything you need to know about Goodell

In college, Terrelle Pryor did something that was against the rules. To briefly explain it, Pryor sold memorabilia for money as a student-athlete, which at the time violated NCAA rules. Pryor was to be suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season, but he decided to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft, and end his collegiate career.

Once he got to the NFL, Goodell made a bizarre decision. After Pryor was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders , Goodell decided to suspend him for five games. This was strange, considering the fact that the action Pryor was suspended for happened a year earlier, and he wasn’t even in the NFL when it happened.

It just felt like a weird thing to do. If Pryor was to do the exact same thing he did when he was in the NFL instead, he wouldn’t have broken a single rule. Goodell simply wanted the last laugh here, and to make Pryor feel like he couldn’t escape the NCAA’s ramifications.

Also, something worth considering is the fact that Pyror got five games for selling memorabilia in college, while Rice originally got just two for brutally assaulting his girlfriend. Goodell viewed Pryor’s actions as warranting more than two times the suspension length as he originally decided for Rice.

And this isn’t the only case of Goodell (or any commissioner of a sports league, for that matter) treating minor infractions with much more severity than domestic violence. Smoking weed can get you blacklisted (see, Martavis Bryant and Josh Gordon), while beating up your girlfriend or wife gets you a slap on the wrist.

That right there should tell you everything you need to know about Goodell and people like him.