CONDI RICE – NFL COMMISSIONER?
As Commissioner Roger Goodell’s job becomes more and more in jeopardy due to his handling of the Ray Rice domestic abuse case, one name we keep hearing bandied about is former Secretary of State, Condi Rice.
Has a certain ring to it, Condi being bandied. Plus a certain touch of irony, given her mother’s maiden name was Ray and her father’s name, Rice, goes together to form Ray Rice – the center of the controversy.
Of course, Roger Goodell, is not wishing to give up his job and he has 44 million reasons not to, per year, plus the owners like the money he’s making them so it might take a tsunami of protests and fan discontent to oust him. Roger has even gone so far as to beef up his staff with women (maybe “beef” is the wrong word) to guide and help frame the NFL’s domestic abuse policy. Vice president of community affairs, Anna Isaacson, was bumped up. Three political heavyweights were added – Lisa Friel, Jane Randel, and Rita Smith – with one of them, Friel, having been head of New York County District Attorney’s SVU for a decade.
The irony here is even after Goodell tries this come-from-behind domestic abuse policy hail Mary, it might fall incomplete and he still gets ousted. Then Condoleezza moves into a female laden NFL office and the first thing she does – lease a new condo. Sorry, I wish I hadn’t done that.
You might ask what qualifies Condoleezza to be commissioner of the NFL? I say plenty. You might turn that around and ask what qualified Roger Goodell? He was the son of a New York Senator, a star high school athlete, got an economics degree, interned with the NFL and worked his way up.
Can Condi say the same? No, she can’t. Her dad was a minister, a college professor and a football coach. While Roger was a high school sports star, Condi was a concert pianist and briefly engaged to Denver Bronco wide receiver, Rick Upchurch. While Roger was interning at the NFL she was consulting with presidents about how to handle Russia. When Roger was promoted to the mail room Dr. Rice was teaching international business as a college professor. When Roger was assistant to Lamar Hunt, president of the American Football Conference, Condi was sitting on the board of directors of seven major corporations, including Chevron, Rand, Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab and others. When Roger was appointed to Chief Operating Officer of the NFL, Condi was Secretary of State.
You might ask about qualifying personality traits suiting one to the job. The Commissioner has to promote football worldwide. He or she needs to be well traveled. Did I mention Secretary of State? The commissioner needs to protect the shield, sell the brand, be a good sales person. Do you know how tough it would be to sell the American public that Iraq might have WMDs? That would take a pretty convincing sales person.
The commissioner needs to be someone who knows something about abuse, be it domestic, child, drug or getting information from terrorists without calling it torture. I think Condi might be a little more qualified than Roger, here. The commissioner needs to be someone who can deal with his or her bosses, the owners, even if some of them might be half-wits. Did I mention Condi once worked for George Bush? She seems pretty convincing to me.