NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has a Twitter account. But he doesn’t use it very often.
On Friday, he dusted it off for the first time since September 5, the first day of the 2013 regular season. And he sent five total messages.
The first two focused on Friday’s fundraising event at the Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School in Tampa, where Goodell appeared and spoke to the media. He then pointed out that, on Thursday, the Commissioner visited with the Associated Press Sports Editors to discuss the “future” of the NFL.
Goodell capped that with these two back-to-back sentiments: (1) “We have a bright future due to strength & quality of the game, players, coaches & fan interest"; and (2) “We always have our challenges but we are excited to meet and exceed them.”
It’s not clear what motivated the spontaneous display of confidence. MDS thinks it’s a subtle response to the Mark Cuban theory that the fat hog will soon be slaughtered. It’s also possibly a reaction to the widespread frustration regarding the two-week delay of this year’s draft, which is now parked on Mother’s Day weekend (and which will compel scouts and coaches and other football operations people to spend Mother’s Day chasing undrafted free agents).
With more than 15,500 votes cast since Friday on our poll regarding draft timing, an improbable 96.33 percent prefer the draft to be held in April, not May.
The league remains incredibly strong, and the NFL constantly strives to get better. But it remains important when pushing forward to be willing to revisit past decisions that may need to be adjusted -- and to learn from those mistakes when considering more changes that may be more luxury than necessity.
For now, the NFL’s biggest looming potential shifts relate to the expansion of the playoffs, the contraction of the preseason, and the relocation of team(s) to London or Los Angeles. The 18-game regular season also continues to simmer, but with no real effort by the league office currently to make it happen.
The NFL is hardly broken. But in an effort to climb even higher, there’s always a chance the league will slip.