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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has always been known to defend the officiating in the NFL, but by this point, fans are getting tired of it.
During Monday's Super Bowl LVIII media day, he reiterated his praise of the referees and other game officials, while at the same time stressing the need for evolution:
"That's part of our popularity... You all do such a great job that you see more than you could ever see in officiating. The game is faster.
“I think our officials do a great job. They are superior. But at the end of the day, no one is perfect - whether it's all of us that watch the games or play the games or coach the games or the officials. We have to continue to try to get better... use technology wherever we can to try to improve their performance.”
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Unfortunately for him, his comments were not well-received:
"He's blind as fuck or he's paying them to rig the game" - a fan wrote
Another fan posted - "Drug test him"
Roger Goodell also defends NFL's streaming of games online
Another controversial topic Roger Goodell discussed was the NFL's decision to have games air exclusively on online platforms.
Ahead of the 2022-23 season, Amazon announced that it had secured the rights to Thursday Night Football, with the commerce giant airing games on its streaming service Prime. The first game it aired was met with condemnation by fans, who mainly complained about poor feed quality.
But that would be nothing compared to the 2023 announcement that Peacock, NBC's streaming app, would exculsively air a Wild Card Round game (which turned out to be the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins). It was immediately decried as a "greed-fest", among others.
Goodell, however, is steadfast in maintaining this direction. He mentioned that if the NFL were to remain popular, it would have to keep up with the trend:
“We have to fish where the fish are and we have a lot of consumers that are on those platforms. And the Peacock game showed that. Amazon showed that over the last two years. … Our fans are on these platforms and our fans want to access them.”
For instance, Super Bowl LVIII can also be seen on Paramount+, CBS's streaming platform.
