OT: Worst Commissioners in American Sports History
In response to the, um, heavy handed penalties issued to Tom Brady and the Patriots, I began to create a list of the worst commissioners in American sports history. My short list:
1. Roger Goodell -- He just seems to make shit up as he goes along. Words like arbitrary and capricious come to mind. The examples are too endless to mention.
2. Gary Bettman -- Several lockouts, the disastrous expansion of hockey to impossible-to-succeed markets, presided over a huge decline in popularity of the sport, general incompetence.
3. Fay Vincent -- So bad that the owners booted him from his position.
What is your list of the worst sports commissioners of all-time?
Gary Bettman is much worse than Roger Goodell.
No, he isn't. Bettman faces much more challenging circumstances than Goodell, and has done a fairly good job at least the last five years of growing the game. Name one good thing Goodell has done.
Bettman also had a real union to deal with/against compared to the joke that is the NFLPA... and between the two lockouts there was much more of a structural change to the finances of the league than the NFL has ever had to deal with. Plus, Goodell locked out the referees which was a huge deal at the time.
Much of the precedent for the NFL contracts was set by Tagliabue, Goodell was handed a league that was already printing money. When everyone wants to throw money at you it's not that hard to negotiate a massive deal.
He failed to take the lead on the concussion suit in the first place, and thus led to the League of Denial documentary.
The 2005 lockout I agree, but the most recent lockout if anything seemed to grow the popularity of the NHL...also, Bettman did the Rogers TV deal in Canada which is on par in terms of magnitude (if obviously not real economic value) as the NFL deal.
As flaky as DoPS is the absurdity of their suspensions pale in comparison to Goodell.
I don't think the lockout has anything to do with how unpopular NHL hockey is these days.
The NHL has never had good TV ratings in the U.S. No way was it ever close to the NBA's ratings.
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Fay Vincent doesn't belong on there. He was kicked out of an owners meeting not because he was "bad" but because he did not see the commissioner position as being a lackey to the owners. Some gave him a title of The Last Commissioner since he put fan interest above the money men, a dying philosophy at the time and a true relic in sports today.
I was about to say... How the fuck is Fay Vincent on this list? Dude stood up to owners and actually made some reasonable decisions unlike the stooge that is Bud Selig.
This brings me to my other point. HOW IS BUD SELIG NOT ON THIS LIST?
Blatantly turning a blind eye to the steroid era damaging the sport's reputation in the process causing this whole era of asterisks is just borderline stupidity.
I would put Selig on instead of Vincent and swap him with Bettman, but that might just be me.
I dream of the day the NFL hands out stiffer punishments for hitting a woman than smoking pot
Unfortunately, that won't change anytime soon no matter who the commish is. Budweiser, Miller and Coors have a lot to do with it.
But it seems to me that Goodell is just the owners' bitch and does what they say. And then makes $50 million a year to be the "bad guy" in the eyes of the fans.
I negged you for the fact that you don't seem to think betting on your own team and rampant gambling while in the dug out doesn't justify a ban.
Also Bucky Weaver, but he wouldn't be in the HoF. He is even more deserving than Shoeless Joe of having his name cleared
1. Goodell -- 4 games?
2. Goodell -- 4 games!
3. Goodell -- 4 GAMES!!!!!!!
If I were Tom Brady, Id punch Goodell in his fat, arrogant, lying face. At the very least I would never say another word to that a-hole. In 10 years when he tries to buddy up at a fundraiser for a photo-op, Id have to be restrained from cold clocking him.
Goodell just ruined the legacy of the NFL's Greatest QB.
Aside from whether or not Brady is the NFL's greatest QB—that's a debatable point of opinion—there is nothing a lackey like Goodell can do to "ruin" the legacy of the man who has helmed four Super Bowl winners.
1. Gary Bettman
2. Gary Bettman
3. Gary Bettman
4. Roger Goodell
with putting an * by Roger Maris' home run record. . .
I certainly know who the BEST commissioner is
As brief as Fay Vincent's tenure was as the commissioner of the MLB, it certainly was filled with a lot of interesting decisions, at least in my view. I still remember when he ruled that Steve Howe was to be permanently suspended and then threatened to expel Buck Showalter and a couple others in the Yankees' organization when they offered to testify on Howe's behalf. The owners resented his intervention in the 1990 lockout too, as I recall, but I think the Howe fiasco sealed it for a fair number of them. I think part of it was that Vincent tried to be out in front of baseball, which was not something for which the owners - not very far removed from collusion charges in the 1980s - were quite in the mood.
I don't know that it's fair to simply call him the worst commissioner because of his whimsical decision making, and in order to make that determination you would first have to establish the criteria. Unfortunately the greatest measure of a commissioner is how financially successful their league is. Has the NFL lost any fans today? I doubt it. We can all complain but people keep paying crap-tons of money to go to games, buy jerseys, etc. He may look like a fool to the public eye but it's not like the NFL has gone down hill financially since he took over.
I don't think the greatest measure of a commissioner is financial success. That might be the way the owners view it, but not me. His actions over the last half dozen years have hurt the credibility of the league in many eyes. To your point, those people -- including myself -- still watch the sport, but that is no thanks to Goodell.
I agree- personally I can't stand the guy and think he is terrible at his job, but if there is no consequence to the actions we are critical of then what difference does it make?
Not exactly a commissioner per title, but Sepp Blatter from FIFA is the worst and most corrupt person there is running a sports organization
Selig and Bettman are easily above Goodell for worst commissioner. Selig waited idly by when his players and his owners were just letting steroids run rampant. He presided over the strike that cancelled the World Series in 1994. He reinstated George Steinbrenner after he was banned for life by Vincent for paying some dirt bag to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield to justify nixing his 10 year contract. He has pretty much screwed the Oakland As left and right from being able to leave Oakland.
Bettman has failed at every turn in terms of lock out issues. 2.5 cancelled seasons under his watch is just ridiculous.