NFL owners appear to be counting on short attention spans and the public’s overriding love of football to ride out the storm that threatened to engulf Commissioner Roger Goodell last week.
Goodell has stayed out of sight since the controversy stemming from the Ray Rice interior elevator video broke a week ago Monday, and so far Goodell and the league’s most powerful owners are solidly resisting calls for him to resign or be fired for his poor handling of the situation.
Although Redskins owner Dan Snyder issued a strangely timed statement of support for Goodell on Saturday morning, similar comments from other owners have been conspicuously — and somewhat suspiciously — few since the situation erupted.
But one ownership source told The Post over the weekend that outsiders shouldn’t mistake that for a lack of support from owners outside of John Mara, Bob Kraft, Jerry Richardson and Jerry Jones, who make up Goodell’s core of strongest supporters.
The ownership source said a lot of owner statements praising Goodell wouldn’t be well-received in the current harsh climate for the embattled commissioner.
The intent of the owners instead is to hunker down along with Goodell and hope that the NFL off-field news cycle doesn’t get any worse and that play on the field can take the spotlight off the sport’s unpopular boss.
How determined are the rattled folks at 345 Park Ave. to observe radio silence? NFL director of officiating Dean Blandino, a fixture on broadcasts in Week 1 as he showed off the league’s new replay control room in Manhattan, was all but invisible Sunday.
And if you’re wondering why the owners are so enamored of Goodell despite his litany of public missteps that started long before the Rice mess, the ownership source said it boils down to cold, hard cash.
League revenues have skyrocketed under Goodell to the point that the goal he stated in 2011 of doubling them to $18 billion a year by 2020 could be reached several years before that. And amid the latest Rice story last week, the small-market Bills sold for an NFL-record $1.4 billion.
When it comes to Goodell, owners feel that money talks and controversy walks.
Injury bug especially pesky
No matter how much emphasis it places on player safety, the 16-game season and road to the Super Bowl remain a war of attrition, a survival of the fittest.
The Week 2 playing field was littered with fallen stars:
Robert Griffin III: Dislocated his left ankle in the first quarter against the Jaguars and could miss the rest of the season. Next Man Up: Kirk Cousins, who looked so much in command of Jay Gruden’s offense (22-33, 250 yards, 2 TDs) that it is not inconceivable that RGIII, who simply cannot stay on the field, will be Wally Pipped.
Jamaal Charles: Scheduled for an MRI exam Monday after leaving in the first quarter (ankle). Charles carried twice for 4 yards. That makes him 9-23 rushing and 4-15 receiving for the season. Next Man Up: Knile Davis, who was 22-79-2TDs rushing and 6-26 receiving off the bench against the Broncos.
A.J. Green: Left during the opening series against the Falcons with a ligament strain to his right toe/foot and didn’t catch a pass for the first time in his four-year career. Next Men Up: Brandon Tate and Dane Sanzenbacher.
DeSean Jackson: Sprained the AC joint in his left shoulder in the first quarter against the Jaguars.
Knowshon Moreno: An MRI exam Monday will reveal whether he suffered a dislocated or fractured elbow following his first carry against the Bills that is expected to sideline him for at least a month. Next Man Up: Lamar Miller, who was 11-46 rushing and 2-7 receiving in relief.
Raiders need to move … in a different direction
Big changes look like they’re coming at the top in Oakland, maybe even very soon.
The overmatched duo of coach Dennis Allen and GM Reggie McKenzie already seemed to be on thin ice, and that was before the Raiders started out 0-2 after Sunday’s hideous, 30-14 loss to the Texans in Oakland’s home opener.
The Raiders are near the bottom of the league in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense and total defense through two games, and hope already appears to be running low.
“We suck,” 37-year-old cornerback Charles Woodson said after the game. “I’m embarrassed.”
Woodson then all but pleaded with owner Mark Davis (Al’s son) to clean house.
“I don’t know what we need to do as a team going forward, but something is going to have to be done,” Woodson said.
The problem with predicting what will happen next is that Davis is as inscrutable as his late father.
But Davis could soon be feeling outside pressure to right the situation because city leaders in Oakland still haven’t explained how they are going to finance the new stadium they just promised him.
If the Raiders remain terrible, public and government support for the new building could crumble and leave Davis with the unappetizing choice of staying in the decrepit O.co Coliseum or having to battle the NFL over yet another Raiders relocation.
What’s for real?
The 2-0 Bills: These are heady times in Buffalo, which has a popular new owner and a team that sits atop the AFC East. E.J. Manuel is hardly reminding anyone of Aaron Rodgers, but his job is to be a game manager for head coach Doug Marrone, who has a formidable defensive line, a gamebreaking threat out of the backfield and on kickoff returns in C.J. Spiller, and the best receiver in the draft in Sammy Watkins.
The 2-0 Texans: They’ve forced six turnovers, Arian Foster is back in Beast Mode behind an offensive line that hasn’t surrendered a sack and rookie coach Bill O’Brien isn’t afraid to let J.J. Watt catch a 1-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick. Watt, a tight end at the beginning of his college career, undoubtedly brought a smile to the face of linebackers coach and ex-Patriot linebacker Mike Vrable, who caught 10 TD passes.
The 1-1 Seahawks: Keenan Allen (5-55) must have been looking for Erin Andrews after rendering Richard Sherman speechless with the media.
“All week we said we were going to throw at him because he’s not what he’s hyped up to be,” said Allen.
Perhaps the reason Sherman resorted to Twitter to “Lmao” at charges he was exposed was the fact he was on the Qualcomm Stadium field for 42:15 in the 100-degree heat during which Philip Rivers fired three TD passes to old reliable TE Antonio Gates.
The 1-1 Browns: Good for Local Boy Makes Good Brian Hoyer. Good for Mike Pettine.
The 0-2 Saints: Who Dat yelling at Rob Ryan on the sidelines, Sean Payton? The defense can’t rush the passer and can’t finish and the Saints are weaklings on the road still.