Bright light city gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire.
For the NFL, its soul isn’t burning. It’s simply been sold to Sin City and all it stands for.
Speaking at a Super Bowl LVIII Host Committee event on Tuesday, Commissioner Roger Goodell completed his Las Vegas metamorphosis.
“You really have become Sports Town USA,” Goodell said, via ESPN.com. “You really have, and that vision was set out, that vision was clear. We wanted to be a part of it, and I think when that happened, everything seemed to change and the stadium obviously is a key component of that. It’s one of the reasons we struggled in Oakland is being able to get a long-term stadium that would work for us. Great news is this is home for us, so we’re glad to be here. . . .
“I think every one of the sports that are represented here today would say that you’ve changed that, you’ve changed that narrative, you’ve changed that image, you’ve changed that platform. And I think, I probably would not have said 10 years ago, that I would see myself sitting here for a Super Bowl.”
“Probably” isn’t nearly strong enough. He definitely wouldn’t have said that. Regarding gambling, he absolutely said the exact opposite.
Testifying under oath 11 years ago in the case that ultimately opened the floodgates to state-by-state legalized gambling, Goodell was asked whether he believes “legalized sports gambling in Las Vegas undermines the public’s confidence in the character of the games.”
Said Goodell: “It creates more gambling, it creates more gamblers and it creates the more likelihood that people are going to perceive it as being an influence. . . . It’s a very strongly held view in the NFL, it has been for decades that the threat that gambling could occur in the NFL or fixing of games or that any outcome could be influenced by the outside could be very damaging to the NFL and very difficult to ever recover from.”
That’s why the NFL fought so vigorously the spread of the vigorish. As Goodell separately said that same…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/roger-goodell-completes-180-las-223904231.html
Author : ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports
Publish date : 2023-12-05 22:39:04
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