Except for maybe the most hardened misogynists among us, watching the NFL has been more difficult this season. The NFL has shown itself to be a despicable organization. It has been bad enough watching as they squeeze players for more money with the lockout a few seasons ago and seeing the NFL soak cities and taxpayers for new stadiums for the past few decades. Recently, the NFL’s pathetic response to the concussion issues faced by its players was equally shameful and tough to swallow. The NFL could have taken taken steps that would actually help players such as guaranteeing health coverage for players, expanding rosters to enable in-game concussion screening, and providing financial incentives to teams or players who properly treat concussions. Of course, that would dip into the NFL and its owners’ pockets. Instead, the NFL decided to dip into the pockets of its employees by imposing ridiculous fines on players who in a split second move their helmet up one or two inches in a violent and inherently dangerous collision.

The man who has been at the front of all of the NFL’s pathetic management and fuck-ups has been one Rodger Goodell. A man who is perhaps the best example of American CEO excess. A man who has never handled a situation appropriately, is utterly unlikeable, and makes $44 million a year. Read that last number again. When we deal in the millions, it is often difficult to comprehend how much money we are talking about. How about this, $44,000,000.00. Rodger Goodell made that much money and fucked up every public scandal he has faced. Keep this in mind as well, Rodger Goodell made more than any player in the NFL. The highest paid player in the NFL makes less than half, about $20 million a year (the specifics are difficult to track given signing bonuses and the non-guaranteed nature of NFL contracts). The median player salary in the NFL is $770,000 a year. It would be charitable to say that Goodell is “average” at his job, but he makes $43.27 million more than the average player in the NFL.

– The 44 Million Dollar Man –

To put it mildly, the NFL did not need another scandal, especially when it is run by such an incompetent commissioner. So, of course, Ray Rice came along. I do not need to cover all the details. Everyone knows how idiotic Roger Goodell’s response was to that scandal. The final insult was his pathetic attempt at a “do-over” after TMZ released the video from inside the elevator. Several months after we watched Rice drag his unconscious fiance from an elevator and admit to domestic violence, a tape emerged that showed, low and behold, Ray Rice striking her. The tape should not have shocked anyone, especially someone who earns $44,000,000.00 a year and runs a billion (trillion?) dollar enterprise and who has access to all the resources one would need in order to learn what domestic violence looks like. Instead, we were treated with an additional suspension and a press conference for the ages.

Roger Goodell’s press conference was universally panned for good reason. Roger Goodell claimed he did not know what happened in the elevator and therefore had to increase the suspension. It was a masterclass in press conference bullshit except for the fact that no person bought the bullshit. I pulled the following from a transcript from the press conference. I put the most bullshit statements (and questions leading to those statements) in bold:

–Q: In your interview with CBS News almost two weeks ago you said Ray Rice was ambiguous about his description about what happened in the elevator and that is why you went back and suspended him further after the video came out. What exactly did Ray Rice tell you happened in the elevator? And how did what you thought in your mind happened differ from what we saw on the video?

–RG: A couple of things. First off, as I said, we got new information from the first time I met with him to my initial discipline, which three weeks later I acknowledged was not sufficient. It was clear there was an act of domestic violence, but it was inconsistent with the way he described what happened. When we had that new information, we had the ability to say ‘we’re going to object and we’re going to take additional action.’ And that’s what we did. There was new information that developed because we had not seen that second tape that became public roughly 10 days or so ago and that was not consistent with what he said.

–Q: Commissioner, what did he say? What did he tell you?

–RG: The one issue with this is this is now a matter of appeal. As you know, the NFLPA has appealed this. So it’s a matter that is going to be taken up in the appeal. So without pre-judging or without getting into any specifics on this one I’ve got to respect the appeals process right now.

– I have to respect the appeals process by lying to you. –

Goodell says it is clear there was domestic violence, but there were inconsistencies in Ray Rice’s account in which he admitted to committing domestic violence. But Goodell won’t say what those inconsistencies were. Oh, and by the way, it is the Players Association’s fault because they appealed it. Now, why would answering the question lead to “pre-judging?” He already called Ray Rice a liar. Couldn’t he say why he was a liar? Of course he could. In reading his rambling incoherent answers it is obvious that he is being evasive and dishonest in his responses. In other words, he was lying and is a liar.

I have been watching ESPN every morning pretty much every day for the past few years, and I read Grantland and Bill Simmons’ podcasts religiously. ESPN has done an OK job covering this whole situation. But on an afternoon run this past week, I listened to Bill Simmons’ weekly NFL podcast with Cousin Sal. On that podcast, I heard Bill Simmons angrily call Rodger Goodell a liar and talk about how he was insulted by Roger Goodell’s press conference. Simmons also made a vague reference to expecting some flack from his employer. I appreciated hearing someone feel genuinely offended by Roger Goodell’s dumb-shit press conference. I sympathized with his passion, and it reminded me of why I have enjoyed Simmons’ work for over ten years now.

So of course ESPN suspended him for three weeks. The suspension, with its reference to journalistic integrity, was a joke. This is a channel that delivers its “journalism” with bullet-points sponsored by beer companies and features multiple talking-head television and radio shows including First Take where people like Stephen A. Smith defend wife-beaters and Skip Bayless lies about his high school basketball experience.

– Journalistic Integrity –

In reading various articles about the suspension, it appears that there was an additional consideration that “justified” the suspension. ESPN wanted to send a message to its highest profile writer and “had” to respond because Simmons dared his bosses to act. So, what is the message? Do not state your opinions and you must always obey management? Um, message delivered? So now I know that a corporate CEO can discipline its employee for no real reason? Um, ok? I guess I needed a refresher on that obvious fact? ESPN’s suspension pissed me off. Grantland and Bill Simmons is the only content I read from ESPN, and I rely on his podcasts to get me through my runs, plane flights, and walks to work. I do not like it that he is suspended, and it especially pisses me off that I will miss out on his work because Bill Simmons said what everyone was thinking about Rodger Goodell.

ESPN only got worse from there. I have not read the ESPN ombudsman for a while. I used to read those articles when I had literally run out of anything else to read online when I was in college. Basically the ESPN ombudsman is supposed to be an independent writer that covers ESPN happenings. Before the ombudsman spoke, the consensus online on the suspension seemed to be that the suspension was outrageous but that Simmons may have seen it coming given his “dare” to his bosses. Well, the ombudsman spoke and, contrary to just about every other take on the issue, came out in full defense of ESPN management. The ombudsman went as far to compare Simmons to an adulterer and said he had “thin skin.” Ugh.

Fuck ESPN. I am suspending myself from ESPN. They obviously have a major conflict of interest in covering the NFL given the billions the NFL and ESPN put in each other’s pockets. We can simply ignore it normally, but we cannot ignore it when ESPN stoops to a new low and throws its body in defense of a lying piece of shit person like Goodell. Today is day three of my own suspension from ESPN. I don’t feel like I am missing anything. I am still going to Grantland. It is Simmons’ website, and it does not make sense to boycott that as well. I was hoping Grantland would come out with something about this, but apparently ESPN has instructed all its employees not to mention Simmons’ suspension. I don’t blame the ESPN talent for not risking their living by breaking that code, no matter how ridiculous it is (the ombudsman and ESPN were apparently free to speak on the topic, no?), but it only makes ESPN’s actions in this matter all the more ridiculous.I don’t think my boycott of ESPN will make any difference on ESPN’s income or change ESPN culture, but I know it will make me feel better about myself. I feel like a hypocrite at times watching the NFL, but at least I will not feeling that way when watching ESPN.

I hope Simmons leaves ESPN after this mess. Maybe he won’t, he is unlikely to make the same amount of money elsewhere, but I can still hope. And I can still avoid ESPN.