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Based on what we know of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, how would he handle the Derrick Rose situation?
Come on, humor me.
Hypothetically, a No. 1 NFL draft pick is found to have falsified his SATs. He never should have been eligible to play for that top 10 college football program, the one that landed him on national television, took him to the BCS, and skyrocketed his draft stock.
Based on Roger Goodell's track record, would he not be tempted to fine or suspend that player?
After all, if he can't or won't, who else will?
Not the player's new team. They're afraid of offending their multimillion dollar investment.
Not the NCAA. When it comes to athletes-turned-professional, they have less jurisdiction than the Podunk Police Department.
However, the NFL's Personal Conduct Policy has expanded the commissioner's disciplinary power to a virtually limitless extent. Goodell has used it to set new precedent, and to serve notice to future offenders.
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By now, we know more than we need to, and more than Derrick Rose ever hoped we would, about his eligibility issues at Memphis.
His decisions—and no matter who else was involved in the artifice, the blame is ultimately Rose's—have contributed to forfeiture of a record number of wins, the denigration of a college basketball program, and the untold financial consequences that go along with it.
Mercifully for Memphis, it could have been much worse.
Yet how is Rose affected?
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