Roger Goodell

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday he remains hopeful that the players' union will agree to blood-testing for human growth hormone at some point this season. "We're ready to go," Goodell said. "I think the science is proven. It's a valid test and we're hoping that we'll get the green light from the union. " The league and union agreed. as part of their new collective bargaining agreement, that players would be tested annually for HGH and would be subject to additional random testing throughout the year.

Now comes the latest referendum on a topic that's been debated over the airwaves and across bar stools for a decade, maybe two: Which sport has more clout, pro football or pro baseball ? It's not much of a debate. Clearly, the answer is pro football. Baseball is America's pastime, but football has become America's passion, even addiction. Baseball is pastoral; football plows up the pasture (if you don't believe me, just look at FedEx Field in December). Baseball glories in its history and changes the game...

Roger Goodell wakes up every morning with the weight of the world — or at least ESPN — on his shoulders. The NFL — the lifeblood of America, our annual distraction from economic woe, political quagmire and two wars (or is it three?) — is on the brink of a season lost to a multibillion-dollar labor dispute, and Goodell's legacy may rest on his ability to break the gridiron gridlock before a single kickoff is missed. (If the 2011 NFL season is canceled, Ron Jaworski reportedly has told friends he will defect to Canada.)

Without pause the verbal fusillade keeps coming from the team facility: Coach Mike Shanahan . General Manager Bruce Allen . Larry Michael , the in-house broadcaster. London Fletcher , the voice of the locker room . Really, every fan accustomed to competing for annual offseason championships has pot-shotted the NFL over what Allen calls "a travesty of fairness. " From their perspective, Roger Goodell is the cruel and unjust parent, and the team is a bunch of helpless, furled-lip toddlers sentenced to...

PALM BEACH, Fla. — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday that the league has not stopped investigating allegations that the Washington Redskins and other teams besides the New Orleans Saints had bounty programs when Gregg Williams coached for them. "We haven't closed an investigation," Goodell said at a news conference on the first day of the annual league meeting. "We have not stopped investigating. If we get information, we follow up on it. . . . We have not met with people that we will meet...

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday he's confident that the league and players' union will agree to testing procedures in time for players to be blood-tested for human growth hormone in the opening week of the regular season. "I think that's what we want to work through in the next few weeks but we're both committed to getting it done by the start of the regular season because we do believe in the integrity of the game," Goodell told the league-owned NFL Network. "We do believe that's a...

Roger Goodell appointed his predecessor as NFL commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, to hear the appeals of the four players suspended in the bounty scandal involving the New Orleans Saints, the league announced Friday. Goodell said he enlisted Tagliabue's involvement "to bring this matter to a prompt and fair conclusion. " The NFL announced that Tagliabue will hold hearings on Oct. 30 and issue a ruling "as soon as possible" afterward. The league concluded earlier this year that the...

The world of professional football is in an uproar . In case you missed it, the labor dispute between the league's referees and its team owners turned into an outright debacle Monday night in a blown call that handed the Seattle Seahawks a win over the Green Bay Packers and singlehandedly illustrated the frustration that has been brewing the last few Sundays. I'll leave it to the experts to describe what happened—pick your play-by-play or satirical explainer—in what's ...

Before he led the nation's most popular sports league, before he locked out players and before he locked out the referees, before linebacker James Harrison could call him a "crook" or the "devil," Roger Goodell was a young boy growing up in Northwest Washington who fell asleep cradling a football each night. He had a paper route. He played sports after school. He went to RFK Stadium with his family on Sundays to cheer for Sonny and Sam and the rest of the ...

Roger Goodell is winning. He hasn't met a player or an issue he couldn't beat with a superior gaze. You have to admit that he is a success as NFL commissioner, if the definition of success is exercising control over 1,700 athletes and 32 owners without ever removing your suit coat, or showing a bead of sweat on your condescending forehead. Name an issue Goodell hasn't prevailed on. Player conduct? Owner crackdown? Work stoppage? This week, Goodell scored a legal victory over Dan Snyder and Jerry Jones...

NEW ORLEANS — Roger Goodell arrived in enemy territory and stood his ground. The NFL commissioner issued his state-of-the-league address on Friday, and among his remarks was that he has felt welcome in New Orleans . Restaurants and bars are plastered with signs that suggest service to Goodell would be refused, nearly a year after the league announced discipline in response to a bounty system perpetrated by the New Orleans Saints....

After a grueling 2011, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell might have hoped for quieter, gentler times to follow. But it was not to be. Between the mounting pressure over endemic head injuries in football, the furor over replacement referees and a ‘ Bountygate' scandal that embarrassed the league, last year made Goodell's successful negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement with the players in 2011 look easier than...

NEW ORLEANS — If he had a son, the leader of the free world says he is uncertain he would let him play football . If one of the most ferocious hitters in the game is right, someone will die on a field and the NFL will become extinct in 30 years or less . From President Obama to Ravens safeties Bernard Pollard and Ed Reed, who agrees with the president, to the litany of physicians directly linking concussions to an acute brain disease showing...

Before he led the nation's most popular sports league, before he locked out players and before he locked out the referees, before linebacker James Harrison could call him a "crook" or the "devil," Roger Goodell was a young boy growing up in Northwest Washington who fell asleep cradling a football each night. He had a paper route. He played sports after school. He went to RFK Stadium with his family on Sundays to cheer for Sonny and Sam and the rest of the ...

On recent cool autumn night, Roger Goodell walked from group to group on the artificial turf football field. Wearing sneakers and a dark-gray pullover, the commissioner of the National Football League watched as the coaches put their players through a series of drills that just could help save football. The players weren't hard-hitting behemoths like the Baltimore Ravens ' Ray Lewis or Pittsburgh Steelers ' James Harrison, though. Goodell traveled from New York to Centreville...

Roger Goodell appointed his predecessor as NFL commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, to hear the appeals of the four players suspended in the bounty scandal involving the New Orleans Saints, the league announced Friday. Goodell said he enlisted Tagliabue's involvement "to bring this matter to a prompt and fair conclusion. " The NFL announced that Tagliabue will hold hearings on Oct. 30 and issue a ruling "as soon as possible" afterward. The league concluded earlier this year that the...

NEW ORLEANS — Roger Goodell arrived in enemy territory and stood his ground. The NFL commissioner issued his state-of-the-league address on Friday, and among his remarks was that he has felt welcome in New Orleans . Restaurants and bars are plastered with signs that suggest service to Goodell would be refused, nearly a year after the league announced discipline in response to a bounty system perpetrated by the New Orleans Saints....

At the end of the 1992 Western "Unforgiven," a young gunslinger reflects about shooting another outlaw dead. "Yeah, well, I guess he had it comin'," he finally rationalizes. Clint Eastwood stares back coldly and replies, "We all got it comin', kid. " Bountygate has about as many redeeming characters today. Roughly none. After Roger Goodell handed down staggering penalties to coaches and officials involved in the New Orleans Saints' three-year program...

The world of professional football is in an uproar . In case you missed it, the labor dispute between the league's referees and its team owners turned into an outright debacle Monday night in a blown call that handed the Seattle Seahawks a win over the Green Bay Packers and singlehandedly illustrated the frustration that has been brewing the last few Sundays. I'll leave it to the experts to describe what happened—pick your play-by-play or satirical explainer—in what's been called...

If the Wizards ever get good – a debate for another day; this is Sunday, a day of rest, not a day of head-pounding and vein-opening – then I will be forced to eschew completely the NBA draft telecast. (Sunday's also a good day for words like "eschew. " What a great word. That's not a weekday word. That's a Sunday-go-to-meeting word.) I suppose I should feel sorry for David Stern, standing up there getting booed out of his hand-crafted loafers, but I don't. We all knew what was...