Roger Goodell Nips the Bud: How the NFL Buried the MLB

Mark it down, carve it onto tombstones, encase it in flowing eulogies.

On July 25, 2011 the National Football League finally laid baseball to rest. Not only did players and owners agree to a new collective bargaining agreement, but they did so with emphasis—as if to prove one last time that football, not baseball, is now America’s game.

Whether it was a power play or mere coincidence I do not know, but it is clear the timing of the NFL agreement savagely undermined the usual excitement surround Major League Baseball’s trading deadline. During the last week of July, in a period of summer doldrums usually dominated by baseball news, the NFL announced a triumphant conclusion to a very contentious and public negotiation.

What’s more, the announcement set into motion the most volatile and consequential period of player movement in NFL history. This immediate onset of manic wheeling and dealing quickly buried the baseball buzz machine, relegating MLB’s quaint—by comparison—trade rumors to the back pages.

You need only turn on ESPN to see evidence of football’s dominance. Baseball highlights cower in the corner of the screen, barely visible next to the massive and constant NFL team profiles inhabiting the network’s sidebars. The boys of summer lost out to the boys of fall—during summer no less.

Now it appears the war between baseball and football, a battle waged for the very soul of American sport, has entered its final stage of surrender. With respect to the international growth of the NBA, and to a lesser extent the NHL, this has always been about football and baseball.

Baseball was once America’s pastime—a sport woven into society’s fabric and the one most reflective of its collective consciousness. Basketball and hockey never held that claim. Never. It wasn’t until football rose to prominence in the second half of the last century that baseball’s grip began to weaken, and then fail.

The final proof came this July, in a month that has always been an important one for baseball. It is, in some respects, baseball’s month. No major competing sports, a spotlight fixed on the All-Star Game and trade deadline. Not this year, though. Not with “significant” progress in NFL negotiations reported on the heels of All-Star weekend and a resolution reached during the heart of trading week. Over a period of two weeks, offseason football developments challenged and overtook mid-season baseball intrigue.

Simply put, these are not equal parties anymore. Football stands alone.

We’ll probably never know if Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith intended for this effect with the timing of their agreement. It seems entirely likely that it was a consideration. that Goodell played this scenario out to Smith as he pressed the players for a resolution. I doubt it was the driving force, more likely a bit of added incentive.

At this point I'm not sure intent matters. Either way, the result is clear.