I am a firm believer that Gary Bettman needs to be immediately removed from his position as NHL commissioner because I hate the way in which he is ruining the league I love. But I have never really had an opinion about the commissioner of the NFL until right now.

Paul Tagliabue was a fairly non-descript kind of commissioner who functioned primarily in the background. Prior to Tagliabue, Pete Rozelle was the man responsible for turning the NFL into America’s favorite sports league. Tagliabue did nothing to advance the league, but he also did nothing to hurt it. Roger Goodell is on the verge of completely destroying the NFL and he needs to step down before he bankrupts the league.

In a very recent news development, Anheuser Busch has voiced deep concerns about the “league’s handling of behaviors” in recent events. In other words, a company that sells beer and identifies itself with partying so hard that you throw up is becoming queasy about the NFL’s lack of moral conduct.

When I said that Tagliabue did nothing to help or hurt the league, I meant that as a compliment. When Tagliabue was in charge, players did not publicly call out the commissioner’s office or the league. Players also tried to be on their best behavior because Tagliabue had a reputation for dishing out punishment based on the severity of the crime and not how many yards you gained on the ground last season.

Roger Goodell’s problem is that he is a commissioner who is unabashedly pro-owner. Yes, the commissioner works for the owners. But Rozelle and Tagliabue had this way of making the players feel like they were part of the process. Almost from day one, Goodell has made it clear that he is an employee of the owners and the players better get used to it. That is why, from day one, Goodell never had the respect of the players.

The league has had a variety of discipline problems since Goodell took over in 2006, but things have really gotten bad in the last eight months. Paul Tagliabue dropped the ball on the Ray Lewis incident, and that was eventually one of the reasons why Tagliabue resigned. What Goodell is doing has polarized the league so much that it is difficult to see the league surviving with Goodell in charge.

Let’s take a look at Goodell’s latest folly and the incident that has probably cost him his job. On Feb. 13, Ray Rice knocked out Janay Rice (his then fiancée and now wife) with a quick left jab in an elevator. Prior to knocking her out, he spit on her twice and provoked her to attack him. Then this athlete, a role model to children (whether he likes it or not) struck a woman and knocked her out. He then dragged her out of the elevator and left her on the cold, marble floor until she woke up.

On Feb. 15, the police report of the incident was leaked to the public and in that report it said that Ray Rice struck her and knocked her unconscious. In June, Rice met with Goodell to discuss the incident and Rice told Goodell that Rice struck her and knocked her unconscious.

What did Ray Rice receive as a penalty for this disgusting and heinous act? He was able to go to a class and avoid jail, and he got a two-game suspension from the league. Both the NFL and the authorities in New Jersey (where the incident took place) were hoping that this incident would just go away. After all, it is just another athlete beating his wife. What is the big deal, right?

Then the video inside the elevator came out in August and suddenly, Ray Rice is suspended indefinitely. Did Goodell need to see the video to know what happened? No, he didn’t. This coward of a commissioner increased the penalty when he knew that the feces had finally hit the fan. Goodell didn’t care about what sort of physical damage Janay Rice could have suffered. He cared about his reputation and the reputation of the NFL.

What should have happened is that Ray Rice should still be serving jail time for assault and he should have been indefinitely suspended from the NFL in February. But instead, the authorities in New Jersey didn’t give two shakes about a man beating a woman and neither did Roger Goodell. Both the authorities in New Jersey and Roger Goodell make me sick and they should all resign.

Then there came the story of Adrian Peterson beating his four-year-old son so badly with a skinny tree branch that it caused open wounds on the child’s arms, legs and genitals. Good parenting? No. Just because AP went through it as a child does not mean it was right. Obviously, Adrian Peterson was violently abused as a child and now he has passed that on to his children.

To its credit, the NFL has not had a knee-jerk reaction to this event. It has not issued any statement or done anything. The only ones to react were the Minnesota Viking, suspending AP indefinitely, but with the intent that he work out his "personal issues." It is almost as if the league and the Vikings put their collective arm around AP and said “It’s okay kid, we know you meant well.”

Once again, this whole thing makes me sick. Spanking a child as a form of discipline is one thing. It used to happen all of the time in my generation and we grew up with a sense of respect. Subsequent generations have made the simple spanking illegal and now we have kids who won’t pull up their pants and are out of control. Is it a coincidence? No it is not.

Is Adrian Peterson a child abuser? Yes he is. Just because it was the way he was raised does not make it right. Abused children, especially at four years old, are the most helpless human beings on the planet and any adult should feel sick to beat a baby so hard that the baby bleeds. Especially in the most sensitive areas on the baby’s body.

So now what? Well, the beer people are considering pulling out and the NFL has successfully wrestled the title of “League of Thugs” from the NBA. I don’t care what anyone thinks, but I was feeling a tad bit guilty watching football this weekend. I have never felt guilty watching football in my life, but I did this weekend.

Roger Goodell is not ruining the NFL, he has already ruined it. He is a piss-poor administrator, he is blind to what is right and wrong and his priorities are completely messed up. Every day that Roger Goodell remains in office as commissioner of the NFL is one more day that the league is closer to collapse.

I feel bad for Terry and Kim Pegula. They bought the Sabres and had to deal with a lockout. They buy the Bills and now have to deal with an incompetent idiot for a commissioner. But when the Pegulas finally do take over the Bills, they need to cast their vote to remove Goodell. It will be interesting to see how much longer the NFL owners allow Roger Goodell to degrade and defile the league that they have invested billions of dollars into.

Nick Oliver is a Niagara County resident and tenuous fan of the NFL. His column appears every Wednesday and used to be easier to write after a Bills’ win. Do the right thing NFL owners and fire Roger Goodell.

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