Ever do your job so terribly that you became the scorn of the nation and become one of the most disliked and mistrusted people in sports? Did you completely botch one of the biggest decisions in your career? Did you hold a stammering and stuttering press conference to try to explain your actions? Were you completely outfoxed and outmaneuvered by the investigative arm of TMZ Sports? Do you get paid $44 million to do so?
If you answered yes to all the questions above then congratulations! You’re a finalist for Time’s prestigious Person of the Year Award! You also happen to be NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Here’s the complete list of eight finalists from Time where Goodell joins the likes of Vladimir Putin and Taylor Swift (quite the competition to discern the biggest source of evil there) as well as Ferguson protestors and Ebola caregivers.
- The Ferguson protesters, who took to the streets in August following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer, and again in November when a grand jury declined to indict the officer in the killing.
- The Ebola caregivers, who are still fighting the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, that has so far taken the lives of nearly 7,000 people in West Africa.
- Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who has remained in the headlines throughout this year, from his country’s stewardship of the Winter Olympics in Sochi to its annexation of Crimea, and its role in the ongoing civil strife in eastern Ukraine.
- Taylor Swift, one of the world’s top-selling pop artists, who this year shook up the music industry by pulling her music from streaming service Spotify, which she believes should compensate artists more.
- Jack Ma, an English teacher turned founder and CEO of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant which debuted a $25 billion IPO.
- Tim Cook, who introduced Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple Watch, and Apple Pay this year, and whose decision to come out made him the first openly gay Fortune 500 CEO.
- Masoud Barzani, the acting president of the Iraqi Kurdish Region since 2005, who has deftly threaded the region’s push for independence with the ongoing fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.
- Roger Goodell, the National Football League commissioner whose leadership has been under great scrutiny this year as the league dealt with public incidents of domestic abuse by players such as Ray Rice, among other controversies.
Before you freak out too much over Goodell’s “honor” here, Time’s Person of the Year doesn’t signify “best” person as the likes of Hitler and Stalin have received the award in the past. Rather, it’s supposed to signify impact on current events throughout the calendar year. To be honest though, it’s always been gimmicky, way before the magazine named “You” the person of the year in 2006. The Computer, The Endangered Earth, and The Inheritors have all “won” the Person of the Year award from Time. That said, to make this list you either have to do something really noteworthy, really good… or really bad. I think it’s safe to say Goodell falls in that last category.
Personally, I hope Goodell loses, but not to any of the finalists above, to an inanimate carbon rod in a last minute write-in campaign.
[Time]
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