What the Hell Was Bob Costas Yammering About Last Night?
Transcript via NJ.com
“Greg Hardy is a bad guy who is a good football player,” Costas said on NBC’s Football Night in America, prior to the game. “Over the past couple of years, commissioner Roger Goodell has received a good deal of criticism, some of it fair, some not. But after initially faltering in the Ray Rice case, Goodell vowed to get it right going forward. And in the Hardy case, he definitely tried to make good on that promise. As part of its own investigation, the league gained access to the photos the public has just now seen. And Goodell suspended Hardy for 10 games at the start of the season — still not enough for some but a significant step up from past punishments in domestic violence cases.
“The players association appealed on Hardy’s behalf, arguing, in part, that since Hardy’s offense occurred before the personal conduct policy was strengthened, his discipline should be based on the previous guidelines, and arbitrator Harold Henderson, citing those precedents, reduced the penalty to four games. That’s on Henderson and the players association. They saw the pictures. They knew the severity of the offense and they fought for a reduction nonetheless.
“Once Henderson ruled, under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, that was that. There was nothing else that the commissioner can do, unless and until there is a next time with Greg Hardy.
“So, you can shake your head at the perceived flaws of the judicial system. You can fault the Cowboys for signing Hardy in the first place and Jerry Jones for calling him one of the real leaders of his team. You can root for Hardy to fail and for the rest of the league to show little interest in him if he becomes a free agent after this season.
“But here’s what you can’t do this time: You can’t blame Roger Goodell. And you can’t deny this cold truth about big-time sports. No matter what kind of guy he is, if the guy can play, there will always be a market somewhere for his services.”
That was all followed by Mike Florio immediately saying this about the Player’s Association:
“Their role is to separate the conduct from the collective bargaining agreement. They have a duty under federal law to pursue the appeal. So, they don’t condone domestic violence,” Florio said. “But they have to protect the rights of each and every player, including Greg Hardy in this case.”
The player’s association is LEGALLY BOUND to protect the best interests of the player. So what his own co-workers said 5 seconds after Costas was done talking invalidated the crux of his speech? Bob Costas basically earfucked me with stupidity at the start of Sunday Night Football. That’s my biggest issue when the outrage engine hits a million RPM’s. When it’s really revving people shut their brains off and spout nonsense. No shit, domestic violence is awful, Bob. And Greg Hardy probably is a “bad guy” (oooh! scathing). But you make having a meaningful conversation about a serious subject really difficult when you don’t bother to do a quick sanity check about your weekly diatribe. Trying to refocus the ire of the nation on the player’s association is flat out dumb. These are the guys trying to help retired players collect health benefits and eek out better salaries for some of the most talented athletes on the planet. So to get mad at them for doing their freakin job they legally have to when Bob can’t be bothered to do a little research for his seems a bit hypocritical.
I mean, look at this headline from the Boston Globe:
Wonder if Bob thinks they should make a stand and not work for Hernandez too? They are doing their job. And if they didn’t do it they’d be a shitty union. It’s easy to be mad and see some photos and scream fuck Greg Hardy and his lawyers and Jerry Jones. But it’s also kinda lazy. And proposing that the player’s association not act in the best interest of the players and that the NFL should completely abandon its system of precedents is incredibly short sighted. It’s tough to make that point though when Bob Costas is playing the blame game because he’s gotta be on the most popular side of whatever social issue crops up this week. Just a preposterous take that comes out because getting patted on the back because you think women being beaten (edgy position) takes precedence over even a little critical thinking.