Roger Goodell takes over from Paul Tagliabue as the new Commissioner of the NFL...Will he succeed ?

Question

Pete Rozelle was commissioner of the NFL for 29 years. Paul Tagliabue was commissioner for 17 years. Even though he's only 47 years old, Roger Goodell will have a difficult time approaching that kind of longevity.

Don't get me wrong. Goodell was the obvious choice and the best choice to succeed Tagliabue. He's bright, he gets along with everyone, he knows the league inside out and he was at Tagliabue's side for all the key decisions in recent years.


But the job is just too tough. It gets tougher every year. The more money that is involved, the bigger the egos get and the bigger the issues.


Goodell will do a good job. But keeping in check the egos of 32 multi-millionaire owners, catering to the demands of players and networks, maintaining the level of fan and sponsor support and dealing with all the other influences makes this the most demanding job in the league by a factor of many.

Rate Goodell's chances at lasting as the new Commissioner of the NFL on a scale of 1-10.

Answer 1

We must first be very careful not to compare Roger Goodell to Pete Rozelle. Even though Rozelle had his shortcomings, they were not so significant that they impeded the progress that he managed to oversee. At a time when the rules for modern sport were being written, Rozelle was the right man for that time.

We'd be far safer to compare Goodell to Paul Tagliabue, becaue Tagliabue was really a caretaker and not an innovator. That is not intended to be a slight or an insult of Tagliabue's ability, because a large measure of his success can be attributed to the fact that he went largely unseen...as opposed to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig.

This will be Goodell's charge: take care of the golden goose. His main job will be to help 32 teams and 1500 players split billions of dollars in television and advertising dollars. He's not going to have to reinvent the wheel; he only has to keep a little grease on the axle so that it can roll all by itself.

Thus, I give him a 9/10 chance at success. After all, considering the 32 personalities that you have mentioned, the fact that he is receiving their collective support right now says that they think he can do at least as good as Tagliabue did, and, what with current machinery already in place and certain contractual agreements not due to be renegotiated for a while, he will have a grace period to learn on the job without having to deal with anything more stringent than something moral, like banning a player for substance abuse (which already falls under the collective bargaining agreement anyway, so he's really painting by numbers in any event). As long as he stays awake and as long as the ever-watchful NFL attorneys are available to read the fine print to him, he should be fine.

Answer 2

We must do some math in order to arrive at a logical answer. Pete Rozelle was commish for 29 years and Tagliabue for 17. We add 29 and 17 and come up with 46. Goodell is 47 years old.
Therefore, we subtract 46 from 47 which leaves us with 1. Goodell was 1 years old when Rozelle became commish. Pete and Paul have four letters each in their first names. Thus, a total of 8 (not Roger's rating). Roger has 5 letters in his name, but we don't have a number of letters from another name to add to his. So, we are left with his age at the time Rozelle became commish and add that to his 5 and get 6. Finally, we take the average of the 8 from Pete and Paul's names and the 6 from Roger and his age to arrive at 7. His chances of success on a scale of 1-10 are 7.

Answer 3

8 - Paul set up everything for Goodell. He shouldnt ahve a problem with running the league.