The cover story in this week’s Sports Illustrated is Peter King’s lengthy profile of Roger Goodell, and it’s a story that captures so much about both Goodell the NFL Commissioner and Goodell the man that there’s not really much for me to say other than that you should read the whole thing.
But I will say a little: The profile includes a fascinating anecdote about how Goodell convinced Tank Johnson, whom he once had to suspend for eight games for violating the league’s personal-conduct policy, not to buy a gun. Johnson said he needed a gun to protect his mother; Goodell convinced Johnson that was a bad idea and arranged to get private security for Johnson’s mom.
Also interesting is that Goodell says that Bill Belichick “deceived” him during Spygate, not only about Belichick’s actions but also by refusing to issue the kind of public apology that he says Belichick had privately agreed to offer.
The most interesting part of the profile however, focuses on Goodell’s relationship with his father, the late Senator Charles Goodell. In 1981, Goodell wrote a letter to his father saying, “If there is one thing I want to accomplish in my life besides becoming commissioner of the NFL, it is to make you proud of me.”
Again, read the whole thing.
