Thursday, March 08, 2012

Gary Bettman's reading room

There's a scandal a brewing in the NFL, perhaps the world's most successful and greatest money making machine in sport.  It's a scandal built on the suggestion that NFL teams have put a bounty on opposing players, laying waste to the idea that they are all part of a fraternity, playing hard but treating each other with nothing but the utmost  of respect.

It's a theme wonderfully dissected by Charles P. Pierce on the Grantland website, Pierce has crafted a terrific article that touches on any number of accepted beliefs about the NFL, revealing them as the window dressing for a sport that has its dark and violent side.

A side that sits just to the side of potential disaster, where lawyers will no doubt find a lucrative business should such things as bounties and deliberate attempts to injure not be reigned in.

If you're Gary Bettman today, you are reading that article with great interest and just a little bit of trepidation.

For this brewing NFL scandal should resonate with him and all of the NHL owners.

In fact, if you want to read along with the Commish, insert Gary Bettman's name for Roger Goodell's, fighting for headhunting...  

It offers up a future that may not be a rewarding one for Mr. Bettman and his ownership group, one that should provide the Commissioner and Board of Governors with more than a few points to consider at their next social gathering.

First question at that time should be, hey have you read anything interesting lately?

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