I have some great news for you. Not only will NFL commissioner Roger Goodell indeed be booed during the 2020 NFL Draft, you, yes you, in fact, will have the opportunity to personally boo him. In spite of the fact that the event will be held literally in his basement, rather than in a large public venue in Las Vegas, as was intended, the tradition of booing the most disliked man in football—perhaps in sports—will continue unabated.
And for a good cause. Perhaps inspired by the Los Angeles Rams raising money through their fans’ hatred of their new logo, the NFL Draft will generate up to $500,000 courtesy of Bud Light, a donation going to the Draft-A-Thon fundraiser. So how does it work?
Bud Light is asking fans to send in video of themselves booing the commissioner, tagging the brand in including the hashtag #BooTheCommish. For every video sent in, they will donate $1, up to 500,000 entries for a total of…well, I trust your rudimentary math skills.
Turns out there will be boos at this year’s draft for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. And those boos will raise up to a half-million dollars for the NFL Draft-a-Thon. https://t.co/UttCwnyDbi
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 20, 2020
Goodell has been the commissioner of the National Football League since 2006, and it wasn’t long after that that he began to be disliked, and ultimately despised, by NFL fans. The fanbase that hated him the most would depend upon which controversy he had his fingers all over at that time.
There were certainly times when it was fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers who had him in their crosshairs. There was the suspension of Ben Roethlisberger in 2010, originally for six games, after he was not charged with any crimes, a move that set a precedent Goodell would later use, and eventually back away from.
Then there was the in-season enforcement changes to tamp down on illegal hits, which ultimately resulted in James Harrison becoming the poster boy for violent play, receiving a number of fines, though it never rose to a suspension. That offseason, he called the commissioner a crook and a puppet, saying that he hated him and would never respect him. Oof.
Other fanbases who have had reason to go up against him are the New Orleans Saints, the Dallas Cowboys, and even the New England Patriots, with Goodell stretching his privileges in suspending Tom Brady.
For many, many years, the draft has come hand in hand with booing the commissioner every time he walks onto the stage. He ignored it at first, but has since become a good sport about it. If it hurts his feelings at all, he can just wipe away his tears with the millions and millions of dollars the owners pay him to be their whipping boy.
