Roger Goodell got a belated Christmas present as the NFL presented him with a contract extension through 2018.

The good end of this deal is that he ended what seemed like an endless lockout over the summer, (even though training camp and some preseason games were cancelled), and brought in a pretty successful 2011-2012 campaign season.  During the lockout he cut his salary from 10 million dollars, to a single dollar, to prove that he wanted a change; (dedication towards getting football back?  I say so).  The safety of players have increased because of Goodell’s policies to cut back on injuries; which in the long run, could help out with the health of players in they’re 40s, 50s and so on.  He cracked down on Adam “Pacman” Jones by suspended him and showed he’s a “no-tolerance” person.

The bad end of the deal is that all of these new rules, that he had put into place,  i.e. hitting a “defense-less” receiver as the guy is trying to catch the ball in the middle of the field and not being allowed to hit the quarterback in the legs, has made the game into more of a glorified Flag Football League instead of the league most of us grew up watching.  Now I agree with most of them, but some of them were put into place because Goodell played QB when he was younger and was injured playing the game, (wikipedia).

His suspension power, are at best questionable.  He jumped to the gun with suspensions without seeing what the justice system has to say.  Prime examples are Plaxico Burress and Michael Vick; both served time in jail (Vick for 2 years, Burress for a year and a half); then were faced by suspensions.  Wasn’t jail time enough?  In my opinion yes, or at worst, suspend them for the preseason.

Now the guy has made the game better in a hurry yes, no denying that, but I think there’s some examples out there that show of toeing the line of power.  Maybe he’s just lying the ground work now to see if it works or not; but I think we wouldn’t know until something good or bad comes out of it.