With friends like these…
Welcome to Newsfeed’s coverage of all things Super Bowl 45 (why don’t we just skip the Roman numeral?). Luckily, a hype-filled week that is usually only mildly interesting got off to a very intriguing start, thanks to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, of all people.
Goodell, a buttoned-down executive who is normally very careful with his words, confided to SI.com columnist Peter King that when he was considering punishment for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who allegedly sexually harassed a woman in a Georgia bar in March – though he wasn’t charged by authorities – “not a single [Pittsburgh] player, went to his defense. It wasn’t personal in a sense, but all kinds of stories like, ‘He won’t sign my jersey.”’ Goodell told King he spoke to “I bet two dozen” Steelers players: he suspended Roethlisberger for six games this season, though the sentence was eventually reduced to four games.
To be fair, Goodell made these comments in the course of King’s reporting for a large magazine profile of Goodell. So the commissioner did not speak out yesterday in order to stir the Super Bowl pot. And Roethlisberger doesn’t exactly deserve a staunch defense: his loutish behavior has been well-chronicled.
(More at NewsFeed: A behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Super Bowl football)
Still, the words are quite stunning. Goodell had to know they would create news. You can easily interpret the message: Ben’s teammates don’t like him.
The comments are a potential distraction for one of his teams – the media will be over them in the week-long news vacuum that is Super Bowl week. Whenever Goodell spoke, it was never a stretch to figure that the Steelers might make the Super Bowl.
Give Goodell credit for being honest. But if the Steelers win, and the commissioner shares the postgame podium with Big Ben . . . can you say, ‘awkward?‘