Dylan
Deines
Final
Essay
5/6/16
Dr.
Brown
NFL Hierarchy
Just recently the National Football
League hierarchy has been under fire by fans because of their ruling of the “deflegate”
scandal. In what to some seemed like an abuse of power, Rodger Goodell, the
commissioner of the NFL, issued a hefty charge on the New England Patriots organization
for, what seemed at least, tampering of football equipment (the Patriots still
strongly claim they did not do anything wrong). Although this is not the first
time that the Patriots have been in the realm of cheating and fined for thus,
the direct target of Tom Brady, the team’s quarterback, and the removal of
Patriot’s first round pick, has brought a lot of scrutiny to exactly what the commissioner can and
cannot do with his power, especially when the investigation, headed by Ted
Wells, of the deflegate scandal never really gave any answers but instead
begged more questions.
The fine that was levied on to the
Patriots organization was the heftiest in league history, as it included the
four-game ban of popular quarterback Tom Brady, removal of first and fourth round picks on the 2016
draft, and a one million dollar fine. Tom Brady’s destruction of his cellular device and lack of
cooperation during the Ted Wells investigation led the commissioner to have to
take action on the quarterback. Robert Kraft, the owner of the team, was
outraged by the decision made by the league, and in an interview explained, “Today’s
punishment… far exceeded any reasonable expectation. It was based completely on
circumstantial rather than hard or conclusive evidence.” Brady would appeal his
sanction before the commence of the 2015-2016 football year and win, allowing
him to play his first four games of the season. However, despite winning in the
court, Goodell would continue the target the quarterback when he appealed the decision by the lower court
and a higher court ruled that Brady’s harsh penalty should withstand.
Although there has yet to be any
sort of collective protest against the commissioner, there has been a public outcry against his office as
fans take pity for Tom Brady and his team. The movement is currently in a state
of inception, defined by Leland M. Griffin as “a time when the roots of a
pre-existing sentiment, nourished by interested rhetorician, begin to flower
into the public notice, or when some striking event occurs which immediately
creates a host of aggressor rhetoricians and is itself sufficient to initiate
the movement,” (Griffin). In this case the latter definition holds truth.
During the 2016 Draft, people in attendance in Chicago booed at the commissioner
as he walked on to stage and every time he appeared to announce a name. Although that fact alone doesn’t
show a “some striking event,” the fact that booing Rodger Goodell at every NFL
draft for the past few years does. CBS reports calls it an “annual tradition”
to boo at the commissioner (Breech).
With obvious outrage at the
decisions that the commissioner has made, framing an effective protest against
the head of the National Football League just may be possible. I will no longer
discuss the background of the scandal that has made headlines and called into
the questions the ethics of the NFL, but instead create a protest in order to
invoke change in an area I believe needs changing.
Griffin explains that every
historical movement needs 3 things: “1. [people] have become dissatisfied with
some aspect of their environment; 2. They desire change… 3. Eventually, their
efforts result in some degree of success or failure,” (Griffin). There are
already some building blocks in place for the protest. 1) people are already
dissatisfied with the league for a couple of reasons (deflegate, player safety)
2) the fans of the NFL require some sort of change, either it be the
restoration of Patriots picks, better medical treatment for ex-players, or removal of the suspension of
Tom Brady, etc. According to Griffin, the protest is near to being a “movement.”
Strategies
[1]Every movement needs an identity,
which I think in this case it’s pretty clear how identity will play a pivotal role.
The “fan” identity
is an effective identity because the “fan” of the NFL
is the only reason that the NFL
and its members garnish any sort of income. It is the fan’s wearing of NFL emblems that provides free and profitable
advertising; it is the fan’s
money that pays for the stadiums through ticket and other sales; it is the fan’s watching of the NFL games on Sunday
that creates popularity
for the sport, as well as directs media traffic to cover the sport. The fan really harnesses all
the power that the NFL
has. Obtaining all that power and using it in a backwards way is how this
protest will be successful in its pursuit of change.
With the identity overtly clear to
us, it’s now a simple game of using effective rhetoric to gain 1) attention to
the movement and 2) sympathy for those that are effected by the decisions made
by Goodell as commissioner. The first option is to go logical and use logos as a
strategy to protest. Using professional analysis, for example, on Wells’ report
on the deflegation scandal takes away the validity of the decisions made by Goodell to punish
the Patriots—In a study by the American Institute (AEI), based in Washington,
D.C., a business whose motto is “to defend the principles and improve the
institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism,” did their own
analysis of Wells’ report. In regard to the report, they explained “our
replication of the report’s analysis finds that it relies on an unorthodox
statistical procedure at odds with the methodology the report describes. It
also fails to investigate all relevant scenarios,” (Dubin). AEI’s counter
report to Wells’ effectively takes away any control that Goodell has over the
deflegate scandal. It calls into perspective Goodell’s decision making and the
credibility of Wells himself. Goodell also only bases his decisions off of one
report, which sets him up for increase speculation if his decision was a
decision based on ethics or a flex of power in one of America’s most profitable
organizations.
Pathos, the appeal to emotion, is
another way to make rhetorical gains during the movement. The challenge that
this protests face is its genre as a sport. Although the fans of the NFL don’t
need much convincing, enticing people that are not greatly influenced by the
NFL is a harder and somewhat daunting task. However, the American mentality is
to hate those that abuse power and understanding that mentality will help
greatly in the protest. Tom Brady’s role as an American public figure also
helps. Even if you don’t watch football you probably know his name, his
influence to his team and to the community, and his hard work and dedication to
become the best. Simply by using Brady as the face of the movement will have
some recognition and
appeal to people’s emotions. The idea of Brady, one of the most outstanding NFL
players in history, being wronged by his company is a scenario many Americans
have had to face in their struggles with corporate entities themselves.
Finally, we also have to consider
the framing of the protest. As
of right now the movement is only really appealing to those that are considered
to be fans of the NFL, so the technique of bridging, defined by Michael Heaney
and Fabio Rojas in their article The
Place of Framing: Multiple Audiences and Antiwar Protests near Fort Bragg as
the technique that bridges two seemingly different things together, is
the most useful. By relating Goodell’s power as NFL commissioner to the rights
of workers in the work place is an effective way to garnish some attention and outside
influence towards the movement. Although the Goodell and the rights of workers
don’t exactly match, bridging the concepts by comparing the NFL to a blue-color
company catches the attention of many because of the United States’ past
history with worker rights. In this strategy, convincing the NFL players’
association to join the movement is a pivotal mechanic to making it successful.
The players’ association defend the rights of a player, much like a union does
for common workers in America. This comparison is effective, relatable, and
encompasses people in the movement past the identity originally stated.
One last thing that must be
considered is if the movement is legal, ethical, legible, and effective. Based
on what we want do in this essay, our protest is legal. It does not infringe on
anyone’s personal space as long as the movement does not attack Goodell in his
private sphere. The movement is also ethical. It does not put anyone in real
danger. Impeachment of higher officials is in America’s constitution. The
movement is also legible. The purpose is obvious, to ask for the resignation of
Goodell from Commissioner, the reasons for that also clear. And finally, is the
protest effective? This is the most interesting of questions, because the
removal of someone who is protected by their company and has a lot of power in that
company is nearly impossible. Unless fans unite and sales plummet from the
strike, no real change can possibly be manageable. That being said, however, if
the fans did unite and garnered outside support, the protest would be very
effective.
Works Cited
Breech, John. "LOOK: Roger
Goodell Is Mercilessly Booed by Fans at the NFL Draft." CBSSports.com.
CBS. Web. 06 May 2016.
DeLuca,
Kevin and Peeples, Jennifer. "From Public Sphere to Public Screen:
Democracy, Activism, and the "Violence" of Seattle." Readings on
the Rhetoric of Social Protest. Browne, Stephen and Morris III, Charles, eds.
State College, Pa: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2013
Dubin, Jared. "American
Enterprise Institute Finds Wells Report 'deeply Flawed'" CBSSports.com.
CBS. Web. 06 May 2016.
Heaney,
Michael T. and Rojas, Fabio. "The Place of Framing: Multiple Audiences and
Antiwar Protests near Fort Bragg." Readings in the Rhetoric of Social
Protest. Brown, Stephen Howard, and Charles E. Morris III, eds. State College,
Pa: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2013.
1)
The purpose of the
paragraph is to talk about the “fan” in its direct interaction as an identity
with the NFL.
2)
The main
characters are movement, fan, and NFL
3)
Mixed
topic-strings
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