I do not follow football closely, but I sometimes watch it.

[pennylane100]

However, I must admit I have no idea about all the players in the Ray Rice scandal. I understand that Rice attacked and knocked out his then fiancée. There was a video of it and he has been banned. I also understand that the leader of all the football clubs as been less than honest in dealing with this. He said he did not see the video but he really did, etc.

However, tonight there was a guy called Simmons from ESPN who apparently called the leader of the football clubs, and I quote "a fucking liar" While this does appear to be true, I am not clear on how ESPN is involved in this comedy of errors. Can anyone shed a little light on this.

[Rincewind]

1. ESPN is a cable network.

They have several cable channels devoted to sports, and news about sports. They also have a contract with the National Football League to carry football games. I don't know how long the contract is for, but according to MSNBC tonight, they paid the NFL $15 billion for the rights to show some, but not all of the games. If enough people stop watching the games, the amount ESPN can charge for commercials will drop, and so will their profits. Therefore, ESPN has a financial interest in the bad stories going away as soon as possible, and protecting the reputations of the League and it's Commissioner. Football is a mutibillion dollar buisness, and ESPN wants to continue to carry the games. If the league gets too pissed at ESPN, well, there a lot of other networks to bid on the games.

[JonLP24]

3. You sound like a 'spokesman'

At any rate, you're probably correct

[JonLP24]

2. It doesn't make much sense to me

They released this statement "Above all else, we are not in the business of personal attacks or ad hominem arguments. The tone should not be personal, vicious or dismissive. The value of the assertion must be based on authority or knowledge." - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/09/25/espn-bill-simmons-and-roger-goodell-whats-the-difference-between-lying-and-misinforming/

The thing is he was referencing a report someone on his staff provided with his investigation which basically proved Goddell was lying which is true but kinda presented it in a "special" way also daring management to punish him but the thing is Bill Simmons has a certain style and ESPN is already familiar with it. One article pointed out he was suspended longer than Stephen A. Smith who said Janay Rice provoked her own beating. Besides plenty of employees get in the business of personal attacks or ad hominem arguments when it comes to players. Colin Cowherd has made race baiting critcism when it came to Sean Taylor and John Wall.

It all comes across as a beef that he & management have each other as this isn't first time they feuded and each time seemed to be unreasonable on ESPN's part. I'm not sure how the ESPN organization is operated but you have jackasses like Colin Cowherd and terrible, shitty writers & commentators but over here you have outstanding reporters and Outside the Lines. They were also behind 30 for 30 which sets the bar for sports documentaries. What are their internal goals is what I'm wondering and why they give Simmons such a hard time when they treat Cowherd and Smith with kid gloves?

Also why the need over Goddell? Olbermann opened w/ a report how Goddell's independent investigation isn't really independent (the guy hired represents the law firm which negotiated w/ Directv on the NFL's behalf for the Sunday Ticket. Goddell lying isn't anything new. Anyone w/ a strong famililarity w/ economics and the sports end of it recognize they are leveraging cities/taxpayers for new stadiums simply because they can (if a city/county/state refuses they'll easily find someone--NFL loves LA) but they make it about something else. He has a degree in economics so he knows what he is doing w/ the shakedowns. One example is he basically told the Florida teams they need to build domes because a Super Bowl had a little rain but when Dallas gets hit w/ an ice storm he excuses it by pointing out the number of states affected by the storm then he awards a Super Bowl to NY Giants/Jets. Why? Because they had new stadiums.

fieldofschemes.com probably has countless examples of Goddell lying and/or not telling the whole truth.