Centerfield

Goodell is making an effort to control the image of the league as well as limit its liability, something every smart business does. My company doesn't have happy hours any more for exactly the same reason. How that's related to the items they sell in the stands to people not associated with the league escapes me.

Alcohol has no constructive purpose, and in fact it's downright dangerous.

That's a nice selective quote but Goodell clearly qualifies that in the remainder of the quote. There really is no constructive purpose for any business to serve employees alcohol when they are at work. This seems to be a rather smart decision as far as I can tell and I fail to see the hypocrisy in it.

Does that mean that the owners of Budweiser are hypocritical by not allowing their employees to drink at work all the while trying to sell as much beer as possible to everyone on the street?

Posted by: Scotch Drinker at June 1, 2007 12:14 PM

I tend to agree with Scotch Drinker, but I enjoy the irony that someone with that moniker presented the first rebuttal.

It seems like every week I read that someone from the Minnesota Vikings has been arrested for DWI. Seriously, if we had as many Pro Bowl players as convicted DWI offenders, the team would have been undefeated in the last 5 years. It isn't a matter of telling players they can't drink on their own time. It is a matter of not enabling young men who have suddenly become rich and feel immortal.

Posted by: Todd Pearson at June 1, 2007 12:39 PM

Scotch, I agree with just about everything you say except the part where you say there's no hypocrisy. For the sake of brevity I decided to leave it out of my post that YES, obviously this is a smart business decision to limit liability. That it's a smart and sensible business decision is blindingly obvious, and it simply has no bearing whatsoever upon the hypocrisy.

I do disagree with the notion that after the game locker room stuff and team functions count precisely as "on the job." Obviously no one wants their workers drinking while they are really working.

Does that mean that the owners of Budweiser are hypocritical by not allowing their employees to drink at work all the while trying to sell as much beer as possible to everyone on the street?

Nope. but Budweiser would be hypocritical if it marketed its product as a fantatic way to relax and have a good time in social situations, and then turned around and implemented a policy based on the notion that alcohol does NOT serve a constructive purpose in relaxing, after-the-real-job-is done social situations.

I would hvae had no problem at all with this policy if the NFL had come right out and said that in fact they don't CARE one bit whether or not alcohol can have a beneficial effect in social situations, they just want top protect their image and prevent liability. It's ALL about not getting sued. Clearly, the NFL is comfortable in legal terms with the remoteness of the possibility that that the NFL would be held to account for their role in glamorizing drinking.

I really don't see what so hard about noticing that YUP, the NFL is talking out of both sides of its mouth. It's not a big deal, and I'm not losing sleep over it. But the hypocrisy is right there out in the wide open for everyone to see. When it's good for the NFL's business, they are pro-alcohol, and when it's conceivable as any kind of a threat to their business, they are anti-alcohol.

Posted by: bk at June 1, 2007 01:01 PM

I'll let you know how I feel about this - just give me a chance to get some of this fine single malt down first.

Posted by: Jon Kay at June 1, 2007 04:53 PM

This all stems from the Cardinal pitcher that got killed in a car accident after being drunk. That was clearly a tragic event, but no more tragic than when a non-athlete dies in a drinking-related incident. I think these policies go too far; why can't an adult have a beer after the game? Unless you think no one should drink at all. The NFL obviously has some image problems with all the arrests and so forth, but it seems to me that banning alcohol from locker rooms like the NFL and MLB are doing--while at the same time accepting millions in sponsorship from beer companies--is pretty hypocritical. The real problem is--and the sports leagues know this--is that the players are often incredibly immature and feel invulnerable. But so do lots of teenagers. To me, the NFL already has a repressive corporate culture--penalties for not having your socks in the right place, excessive end zone celebrations--that they do not want to admit is largely aimed at what they consider to be the inner city culture that pervades NFL teams.

Posted by: Marc Schneider at June 4, 2007 04:39 PM