How does a two-game suspension turn into an indefinite ban? The same way an owner can be banned for life, or a PED-user can lose a season and a half for something that occurred over a decade prior. It happens because of a strange job title: the Commissioner.
Born in Scandal
The sports commissioner is an old title. The first one to ever exist was Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a judge chosen to now preside over Major League Baseball.
Judge Landis was hired as a direct reaction to the Black Sox Scandal. The Black Sox were a group of players from the Chicago White Sox that faced the Cincinnati Reds in the 1919 World Series. Except they didn’t actually try to win that World Series. Embroiled in gambling and possessing a wicked hatred of their owners, these players decided to bet against their own team in the World Series and then throw the games.
Enter Judge Landis as the new Sheriff in town. He had complete dictatorial power. His contract was for life and he had limitless power within the game. And when he stepped down, baseball owners wasted no time rescinding that power. They realized they had created a monster. But their reductions didn’t stop the momentum of commissioners. The other sports quickly followed suit.
Meet The Guys
Current sports commissioners enjoy elevated status. NFL Commish, Roger Goodell was recently named as the most powerful man in sports. So, how do these guys get so lucky they get to tell grown men when they can and can’t play their games?
The Big Gun: NFL’s Roger Goodell
The NFL is deeply flawed. Embattled with numerous scandals in just the last year alone, Roger Goodell has had his power tested. In February of 2014, Ray Rice became the symbol of villainy for hitting his girlfriend (now-fiancee) and knocking her unconscious. All of which was filmed on security cameras. Then, Adrian Peterson, was accused of child endangerment. And finally, the New England Patriots (eventual Super Bowl champs) and their superstar quarterback, Tom Brady, were branded cheaters by using under-inflated footballs in a playoff game.
Goodell is widely regarded as the most influential man in sports. The NFL dominates ratings around the country and even is beginning to expand into intercontinental territory. He also has the most power of his colleagues. His rulings are subject to appeal. But he gets to preside over that appeal process. Life is good in the Goodell camp.
The Attack Dog: NBA’s Adam Silver
A youngster, Adam Silver, wasted no time making his mark on the sports world. Within the first three months of Silver’s tenure as Commissioner of basketball, he dropped an A-bomb. Clippers owner Donald Sterling was recorded making extremely hateful remarks about the people he employed, both athlete and support staff. And with his colleague in the NFL taking heat on all sides, Silver used his own powers to fight back.
The Shadow: NHL’s Gary Bettman
The NHL has long lived in the shadow of its more popular sports siblings. So too has its only commissioner, Gary Bettman. While he has been lucky to avoid too many major scandals, he has endured three lockouts. But with the increase in the flow of information that the internet brings, his players are becoming targets like everyone else. Both Semyon Varlamov and Slava Voynov have been the center of domestic violence cases. With the NHL vying for more respect among its North American sports peers, these scandals are an opportunity to set an example.
The Godfather: MLB’s Bud Selig
Rob Manfred has had little to do with baseball so far. Give him time, he’ll be there soon. But if it weren’t for the NFL’s joke of a season in 2014, Bud Selig would hold the title of most recognizable sports commissioner. The retired commish watched as his beloved sport spiraled into “The Steroid Era.” A time so out-of-control, they literally named it after drugs.
Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Ryan Braun, and Alex Rodriguez are only a few of the front line talent that had their names dragged through the mud. And Bud set precedent with suspensions that sidelined athletes for months at a time.
I’m Suspended For How Long??
When the steroid era got out of control, Bud Selig needed to do something to “protect the integrity of the game.” His players were now testifying to Congress and the game was becoming a sideshow. Using the “best interest” clause of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and the league’s by-laws, the commissioner established 50-game suspensions as a baseline for steroid users. Any player caught using performance-enhancing-drugs (PED’s) was given a sentence equivalent to almost one-third of the season. The stage was set for each commissioner to run wild.
Alex Rodriguez
Bud Selig’s triumph came in the form of the most expensive player in history. A-Rod was named in the Biogenesis Steroid scandal but adamantly denied any wrongdoing. Legal battles raged as lawyers started racking up the working hours for a guy who is supposed to be just playing a sport. Eventually, Rodriguez was given an insane 211-game suspension (the remainder of the 2013 season and the entire 2014 campaign).
An appeal of the suspension dropped the length down to just an entire season. But it was proof that the commissioner could set a bar wherever he wanted.
Donald Sterling
The owners actually hire the commissioner, but it seems they are not immune to the dictators they place in power. Adam Silver was faced with a world that had recently endured a few racially charged incidents and now he was staring his own square in the face. Again, his ruling set precedent. Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA for life. Not only was the team taken from him, but he wasn’t even allowed to go to a game in person ever again.
Silver, who had literally less than a quarter of a year’s experience in the job, bounced one of his own bosses like it was nothing. And sure, the punishment may have been justified, but the process in which it came down was a mystery to us all.
Slava Voynov
Gary Bettman has been lucky to only see a few dirty headlines in comparison to his peers. But he wasted no time when domestic violence reared its ugly head. Voynov was under investigation by local police and commissioner Bettman said that was reason enough to not have the privilege of playing in the NHL. Forget “innocent until proven guilty,” the NHL doesn’t even want to take that chance. Voynov still earned his paycheck, but was kept from his passion while he languished in the judiciary.
The NFL… Pretty Much The Whole League
Bounty Gate, Ray Rice, and Deflate Gate are all examples of scandals handled strangely. The NFL, unlike the other leagues has one law man, Roger Goodell.
But wait, he’s just a commissioner, right?
No, he isn’t. Roger Goodell not only levies penalties, he also presides over the appeals process. Bounty Gate, the Saints rewards for injuring opposing players, resulted in the suspension of four players, the banning of one coach, and the year long suspension of the head coach. But when the players tried to fight back and appeal their penalties, their options were limited. The CBA states that if a player wants to appeal, they must do it to the commissioner in writing. Needless to say, those appeals were rejected. No conflict of interest there? It took lawsuits that spanned months to bring any sort of change.
Then, there was Ray Rice.
Ray Rice was suspended for two games initially. It was only after immense public pressure and a second videotape that Rice was suspended indefinitely. So, we went from very little punishment to a maximum? Where are you getting your ideas? The initial punishment was 8 times less than that of a man who was found to have smoked marijuana. Goodell has no standard of suspending players. And it was evident with Rice.
The Problem With Dictators
Did I say dictators? I meant commissioners, but they just confuse me. They seem so alike. In three leagues, commissioners are checked by arbitrators. But these arbitrators are usually selected by the commissioner himself. What usually occurs is a lengthy arbitration that is then contested again.
Major League Baseball was so dead set on never seeing A-Rod play again, they were willing to take him to court before giving in. The US Court System again had to step in after disputes over the Sterling case. In the NFL, it’s even worse. Roger Goodell isn’t even contractually obligated to use an arbitrator on appeals. So the courts are his backup plan. Our tax dollars at work. Bounty Gate was an example of how a commissioner isn’t going to go against his own ruling (shock, huh?). Ray Rice was the smoking gun of how suspensions are just made up on the spot.
Alternative to the Current System
It is clear the NFL has the most work to do in order to curb their commissioners power, each league could benefit from change. As of now, the commissioners can suspend and ban without real repercussions. Sure, no commissioner is ever cheered when they make a public appearance; but that doesn’t really discourage them.
A commissioner is concerned with the legacy he leaves behind. Bud Selig will forever be the man who watched over the Steroid Era. And suspensions are modern day sports’ new norm. A commissioner never really sees his suspensions challenged, however. The problem lies in the appeals process.
The appeals are almost always influenced with a bias. The MLB almost has the system right, but changes can be made. They use a three person appeal board: one chosen by the players’ union, another by the league, and a final one that is deemed neutral. The first two tend to vote along their party’s interests leaving it to be a one person appeal board in reality. This returns to the problem of one person having too much power.
The solution? Make an appeal board just like a jury selection. Suggested by Adriano Pacifici, from the Berkeley Journal of Entertainment and Sports Law, the jury selection process would still involve the three person tribunal. However, choosing the members of the board would not be a matter of sending a person from your camp to fight. Nine members from an independent review board (such as the American Arbitration Association) will be brought in. Then, just as in a jury selection, the players union and the league will have opportunities to eliminate three potential “jurors.” This leaves a final three members to hear the appeal. At the conclusion of this “trial,” the decision is made and no other action can be taken.
Then, that same review board will publicly criticize or praise the action taken by that league’s commissioner. This creates a vocal and polarizing critique on the men who have no repercussions for their actions. What follows is a commissioner that is now much more discerning when dishing out disciplinary action. The fear of that appeals board creates a barrier to bull-headed action.
An Open Statement to Commissioners
Public figures are meant to answer to the public, but right now, you answer to no-one. No longer can you throw out numbers as you please. 16 games for smoking marijuana in the NFL? Maybe that shouldn’t be more harsh than a sexual assault. A true system of equality is one where no single person can control the fate of the entire system. Let the superstars earn the spotlight. Protect the integrity of the game like your job title defines. Don’t try and make the story about you. Take it from the defensive defensemen of the NHL: if no-one hears your name all night, you did your job.
