Let's look at this Capgate; not even just the Redskins, the Cowboys too. Both teams dumped guaranteed money on their major contracts into an uncapped year to save salary cap space when the CBA returned... this was NOT AGAINST ANY RULES. The problem he had was that the Redskins/Cowboys essentially spiked the number for the salary cap when it returned, giving players more leverage in their contracts to request higher salaries since the cap would be higher... funny thing is, the cap was dropping this year and Goodell was trying to save face so the Player's Union wouldn't come after him for the lower cap and players not being able to request larger contracts. So what does Goodell do? Sends all the cap the Redskins and Cowboys had to every other team (minus the Saints/Raiders for their own violations)... now let's look at the fact that only 2 teams took egregiously to this practice (oddly enough, the two franchises which bring the most revenue into the NFL over the last 20 years, which is spread around on its own through revenue sharing), meanwhile 6 teams were $40-50M BELOW the league average and $35M BELOW THE CAP FLOOR BEFORE AND AFTER THE LOCKOUT... in effect, causing the salary cap to lower from what it was pre-lockout.
Let's look at Bountygate... the Saints get investigated FOR THREE YEARS but it took Goodell until the third year to step in and say anything about it and never confront Williams about it while it was going on in New Orleans with any evidence they did have?
Let's look at Spygate. The Patriots & Belichick get some pussy fines, but Goodell burned the tapes so nobody could investigate what was really on them and if it actually gave the Patriots an unfair advantage which SHOULD have cost them the Super Bowl ring that season if it was determined they took EVERYTHING from the Rams.
Now let's look at what Goodell has done to retired players... crapped on them, the entire lot. You talk about all the safety precautions he has taken for the game by "pussifying" it (I'm with you on that one, it IS mandatory to tone it down)... but Goodell continues to ignore retired players dealing with this stuff and has refused to set up anything to provide any of those guys with benefits. 3 of the 7 suicides you mentioned, had contacted the league several times a month over a period of several years asking for assistance and the league (mainly through Goodell) refused any additional aid.
You can say these things are nothing in comparison to Selig/Stern's failures if you want, and while I'm just bullshitting by saying Goodell especially in the heat of the moment with his latest bullshit... the fact of the matter is, Goodell is NOT a good commissioner. A good businessman? Sure, in some areas. His marketing philosophy is genius. But he's an outright prick.
Anyways, while I don't think Dwight has reached his prime or come close to it, and while I don't know just how good he'll be when he gets there if he hasn't reached it already, I think Dikembe's talent is vastly under-appreciated (not by anyone here in particular), just in general. I'll give the nod to Dikembe.
Anyways, back to the one I edited in: More rings by the time it's over, Durant or LeBron?
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