Despite All the Abuse the NFL Takes from Trump, Roger Goodell Kisses His Ass
Source – The usually testy relationship between the NFL and President Trump was set aside, at least temporarily, Tuesday when Commissioner Roger Goodell expressed gratitude to Trump for resolving a dispute involving the Super Bowl broadcast on Canadian television to the league’s satisfaction as part of the administration’s new trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
“We greatly appreciate President Trump’s leadership and determination in bringing about a resolution to our intellectual property issue in Canada,” Goodell said in a written statement released by the NFL.
Canada agreed Sunday to join the trade agreement between the United States and Mexico. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, is the revised version of the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump had sought, and it overturns a regulatory order in Canada forcing the CTV network to air American commercials on its Super Bowl broadcast. …
That provision in the trade deal says that “Canada may not accord the program treatment less favorable than the treatment accorded to other programs originating in the United States retransmitted in Canada.”
Think, say and write whatever you will about Donald J. Trump. Brave heroes bled the ground red at places like Bunker Hill, Antietam and the Forest Moon of Endor for your right to speak your truth to power. But even POTUS’s harshest detractors have to give him this: He’s got the NFL eating out of his hand.
I mean, just look at what Roger Goodell is doing here. The commissioner of the most powerful billionaire’s club in the country. The man who makes the whole media industry perform for him like winos dancing for spare change. The head of an organization that, to steal a phrase, owns a day of the week. And he’s groveling at the feet of a president who has been playing him, the owners he works for, his players and his league like a Stradivarius.
Every time Trump bashes the NFL, his numbers with his base go up and football’s TV ratings go down. Every time they try to “solve” the National Anthem “problem” instead of just quit feeding it and let it die of natural causes, The Donald uses it as a wedge issue, then hangs them on a hook by the wedgie he gave them.
And yet all he has to do is throw one line in a trade agreement no one understands … something something Super Bowl … somethingorother Canada … whatever commercials whatever … and the $40 million man comes running to him like a dog, wagging his tail, asking to be petted, rolling on his back and hoping to get his belly scratched. It cost Trump nothing and still he’s got Der Commissar fetching his slippers.
You don’t have to be a fan of his presidency or his trade agreements to admire the sheer audacity of it. And the best of it is the next time it suits him to use Goodell as a punchline to get an applause break at some arena full of MAGA hats, he won’t hesitate to, and Goodell will keep coming back for more. That is power. Hate the player, don’t hate his game.