Ben Watson Rips Roger Goodell in the Most Ben Watson Fashion

“Commissioner Goodell,
We all realize that football is an imperfect game, played, coached and officiated by imperfect people. What occurred last Sunday in New Orleans though was outside of that expected and accepted norm. Your continued silence on this matter is unbecoming of the position you hold, detrimental to the integrity of the game and disrespectful and dismissive to football fans everywhere. From the locker room to Park Ave., accountability is what makes our league great. Lead by example. We are waiting.”

– Ben Watson

Goddammit, do I respect Ben Watson. A veteran of 15 years in the league. A Walter Payton finalist. A long-time NFLPA union rep for four different franchises. The owner of a score of a 48-out-of-50 on the Wonderlic. If he’d only been blessed with the hands to match his intelligence, character and determination, he would’ve doubled all of Tony Gonzalez’s records. Remember when he signed with Baltimore and blew the whistle on John Harbaugh running padded practices for rookies who were too insecure in their job prospects to say anything? That’s the kind of integrity the NFL needs. And Watson is 100 percent correct in saying they’re not getting it in return for the $44 million bucks a year they’re paying that feckless meat puppet who’s supposed to be in charge.

It’s a blood-soaked disgrace that for all his power, Roger Goodell doesn’t have the balls to admit a colossal screw up that is obvious to every sentient being on the planet. If the Rams had loyal fans, even they would admit their team doesn’t belong in the Super Bowl. No one’s asking him to say the game was rigged like Boston College hoops in the ’70s. Just to acknowledge the Saints got jobbed. They’re owed that at least.

As that other man of integrity Rick Pitino put it, “When you have a problem, if you tell the truth, the problem becomes part of your past. If you lie, it becomes part of your future.” And if you say nothing, even though you are one of the few men in America with absolute power thanks to Article 46, which a federal court has upheld, giving you complete, unchallenged authority to do anything the hell you want and no one can stand in your way, it becomes part of your present.

So congrats to Ben Watson for standing up and saying what needed to be said. And for doing his part to make Der Commissar look even worse than he already does. Granted, if I was helping him write this thing, I would’ve worked in the phrase, “You fucking cowardly, thin-lipped, despotic, fake tough guy, ferret-faced, dry-mouthed, soulless, robotic pile of rotting giraffe shit.” But Watson sort of implied it without actually using the words. One of the best human beings in football just retired and he’ll be hard to replace.