Toronto Maple Leafs: Rather Have Bettman Over Goodell

As a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, I’m grateful that Gary Bettman is commissioner of the NHL rather than someone like Roger Goodell.

Yes, Goodell would likely never be the commissioner of the NHL (obviously). It is worth pointing out though how good Toronto Maple Leafs fans and hockey fans have it with Bettman. There have been issues with Bettman, but all-in-all you’d rather tough it out with him than Goodell.

I won’t lie to my readers. Bettman isn’t a saint.

In his tenure as commissioner, he has been a part of three NHL lockouts. As commissioner, he is responsible for helping the owners and players association see eye-to-eye and hash out a collective bargaining agreement. While he has brought both sides to the table to agree on matters, players have suffered multiple times by not playing until the agreement is signed.

Additionally, he hasn’t be fair to hockey fans across Canada. He hasn’t awarded a Canadian city with the right to host a Winter Classic. Nor as he been open to further expansion in Canada. Instead, every Winter Classic since its creation has been held in the United States and he continues to show a lack of interest in a Canadian expansion.

In the past few years, there has been interest in bringing a team back to Quebec City. Of course there are hesitations as the Quebec Nordiques didn’t have a strong fan base. They moved to Denver after some time. The interest for hockey back in Quebec City hasn’t sparked fire under Bettman. Instead, he’s traveled to Houston, Texas to talk the Houston Rockets owner into potentially buying the rights to a team. In addition, he’s been supportive of Seattle being awarded a team.

The Grass Isn’t Greener On The Other Side

Yet, I’m sure the Toronto Maple Leafs and the entire Leafs fan base would rather have Bettman in charge than Goodell.

In August of 2006, Goodell was picked to take over as commissioner of the NFL. Paul Tagliabue served as commissioner prior to him. In 2006, it was announced that Tagliabue wanted to retire. When Goodell took over, it seemed like he might be a decent fit.

Looking back on those days in 2006, I wished they never happened. Since taking over, Goodell has been an absolute nightmare. In the past few years, he has ruined the excitement behind the sport of football.

In 2012, Goodell found it difficult to work out a new agreement with the NFL referees. This lead to replacement referees being implemented. The NFL recruited new referees from high school and college ranks. While it might have sounded like a genius idea, it was a complete disaster. A lot of calls were being blown and it was time for the replacements to vacate. The NFL finally understood that they had screwed up and worked out an agreement with the regular referees.

Not Done Yet

Then there was deflategate. I won’t lie. I’m a New England Patriots fan as I live in the Greater Boston Area. Deflategate was a witch hunt. It was evident that Goodell wanted to tarnish Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady’s record.

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That’s not all. We can also bring up the issues around chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Also known as “CTE”. The NFL tried to sweep CTE under the rug. After through research done by both the Boston University School of Medicine and Dr. Bennet Omalu, it’s clear that CTE had an impact on several former football players.

Today, we have new issues that have been brought to light. The former cheerleaders of the Washington Redskins accused Dan Snyder, the team’s owner and their front office of ‘pimping them out’. In addition, they brought up that they were asked to be escorts. What does the NFL do to address this? Absolutely nothing.

In addition, Albert Breer of The MMQB and NBC Sports Boston affiliate reported in the below tweet, that the owners and Goodell had been discussing penalizing athletes for kneeling. Every athlete has the right to free speech and has the right to protest. To penalize an athlete for kneeling during the national anthem is childish. Yes, they are kneeling during the national anthem, and not everyone will agree that it’s OK to do that, but that is why it’s a protest.  It’s not much of a protest if doing it doesn’t bother people and get attention for your cause.

All-In-All

At the end of the day, you can understand why as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan that I’d rather have Gary Bettman run the league than Goodell. At least the issues that Bettman has spurred has been far and few than the ones that Goodell has been involved in.

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While you might see me make fun of Bettman on Twitter from time-to-time, I’m relieved that he is running the show rather than someone like Goodell.