Roger Goodeell Doesn't Have Time to Keep Losing Player Discipline Battles

Yes, the NFL returns to town this week, and if you're like me, you're rather eager for professional football to hit the scene once again.  Though the league has done a tremendous job of remaining at the center of the sports world even when games aren't being played, off-season intrigue is a poor substitute for on-the-field excitement.  In fact, it could be that all this extra attention on the combine, the draft, free agency, and the pre-season only makes fans more eager to see their teams get back to business.  Bonus points: sizing up games and breaking down the action will surely provide a welcome break from the steady stream of drama that Roger Goodell's misguided attempts to serve as judge, jury, and executioner for the league has provided.

Let's face it: Roger can't win for losing.  Maybe his heart is in the right place as he works to protect the integrity of the shield by dropping the hammer on players who can't stay out of trouble or teams and players who have a hard time sticking to the rules.  Yet it can't be denied that his track record and his overall performance toward those ends have him looking like the Washington Redskins in action.  Maybe the commissioner and D.C.'s beloved team in the lovely burgundy and yellow color scheme are competing to see who can lose more and sound less convincing as they work to convince us that they are trying really hard to succeed.  Goodell exceeds at pouncing on issues long before the legal system has a chance to do its job when he isn't ordering up investigations that move at a snail's pace.  His actions are either too fast or too slow for the NFLPA and the legions of fans who support the NFL, and those same actions are frequently out of touch with the general public's perception of a reasonable process and suitable punishment for the parties in question.

With this in mind, when Goodell took time out of his busy schedule to declare that he was interested in taking a less active role in player discipline moving forward, it was surely welcome news.  Of course, being the arrogant titan that he is, Roger didn't acknowledge that this move is a response to the constant stream of jeers, bewilderment, and calls for his job that his efforts to play Wyatt Earp have generated.  No, he wants us to believe that he simply doesn't have time to continue his sound imitation of an inept Emperor Palpatine at the helm of the NFL.  Said Goodell: "It's become extremely time-consuming and I have to be focused on other issues."  While he didn't elaborate on the other issues that he would like to turn into a circus sideshow, he was correct when he noted that a "discipline officer or some type of panel that could make at least the initial decision and then designate on some type of appeal" would allow for "a better system."  Of course, it could be said that doing anything differently would result in a better system at this point, so maybe we shouldn't give Roger a prize just yet.

O.K. by Paul West

I just finished O.K. by Paul West, labelled an account of "the corral, the Earps, and Doc Holliday," and in truth it is all of those things, though the emphasis here clearly rests upon the latter.  This is Doc's story, told from Doc's point of view, and it centers on a complex and vastly misunderstood man's efforts to define himself.  Is he a dentist, a gentleman, a gambler, a gunslinger, or an agent of the law?  Is he all of the above?  In West's unique take on the man, no one knows, least of all Doc--at least the Doc whose mind West attempts to crawl inside.  Of course, whether or not his take on the notorious figure is accurate or not is debatable, but there is a sense that the author may have latched onto something authentic.  I found his efforts to flesh out this iconic gunmen to be both moving and inspiring, and I applaud his work here.

The prose is poetic and roams throughout the book, carrying us through the details of Doc's life, savoring some of his most memorable moments while treating others like minor details (or essentially ignoring them) in lieu of further detailing Doc's raging eternal debate.  It's rich stuff; Doc questions religion, loyalty, integrity, sex, and death, all in great detail, and West is happy to take us into the furthest reaches of a quizzical killer's mind as these themes are explored. 

West has done his homework, yet there are inaccuracies here, and honestly I don't think that a wholly accurate representation of the man was nearly as intriguing to the author as a chance to unravel the mysteries of Holliday's mind.  At best, this endeavor largely consists of guesswork, and as such, those looking for a scholarly take on the material will not be pleased.  Additionally, the very approach will put many off.  I must confess that I loathed West's work initially, though his writing soon wormed its way into my heart.  In the end, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to those who can approach the tale with an open mind.  In the final two pages alone, I was inspired to laugh out loud before West nearly brought me to tears.

Bonus points: two of my favorite lines, both of which I decided to tweet, were contained within the same paragraph.

"I am climbing socially, I guess, downward.  From dentist to assassin.  Not bad."

"Ike Clanton was always looking for everybody until he found them, and then he lost interest."