Souhan: It's time for Goodell to go

We know how Zygi Wilf feels. When his employees misbehaved on a boat during the 2005 season, Wilf commissioned a lengthy ''code of conduct'' to prevent further embarrassments to his favorite business.

Wilf understands the importance of image, and how one wayward employee can taint an entire franchise.

That's why it is time for Wilf to take action against an employee who has damaged his favorite business more than any player partying on a boat ever could.

It's time for Wilf, and his fellow owners, to fire NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Goodell works for the owners. He is paid more than $40 million a year.

He was handed one of the easiest and most lucrative positions in America. If the owners had been willing to write an honest job description, it would have read: "When a television networks writes you a billion-dollar check, don't lose it. And don't make us look bad.''

Wanting to make himself visible in a position that should be quite literally foolproof, Goodell decided to become the league's hall monitor. He would punish players for transgressions, even the soon-to-be-legal crime of smoking pot. He craved power. He made himself prosecutor and jury, and then when a star running back dragged his unconscious fiancée out of an elevator that no one else was in, Goodell choked on his tin badge.

It is often said that, for public officials, the coverup is worse than the crime. For Goodell, the coverup is the crime. Either he or his minions saw the tape, or did not do everything within his considerable power to acquire it.

Goodell runs an $11 billion operation out of New York City. He employs former CIA and FBI agents and cops in his security division. He possesses reach, power and influence. He worked closely with law enforcement and political officials in New Jersey to produce a Super Bowl a half-hour from his Manhattan office.

Goodell could have acquired the tape, or a copy of it, had he wanted to.

Had Goodell levied a harsh penalty while denouncing violence against women, he would made himself and his league look credible and evolved. Instead, he acted out of cowardice.

Now cowardice is migrating around the league like a virus.

On the day TMZ released the elevator tape, Goodell did not speak publicly. Neither did Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, nor Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome. The Ravens handled a national embarrassment to their organization and league by asking coach John Harbaugh to address the team's banishment of Rice as if it were an injury update.

Tuesday night, Goodell appeared on CBS, a network that is a business partner of the NFL's, in a taped, 1-on-1 interview in which he offered only weak excuses for his failed leadership. Offering himself only to a paid-off business partner is the executive version of wearing a red jersey during football practice so no one will hit you.

Men who punch women are cowards. Men who cover for men who punch women are cowards. Men who employ men who cover for men who punch women are cowards.

This is how this story leads back to Mr. Wilf.

Goodell has stuck a 2-by-4 into the gears of a public-relations machine that previously looked unstoppable. He has allowed the NFL to appear callous about violence toward women. He has allowed the first Monday night of the season to be consumed with coverage of his failure to fulfill his self-imposed role as the league's sheriff.

That shouldn't be difficult.

Jim Souhan can be heard weekdays at noon and Sundays from 10 to noon on 1500 ESPN. @SouhanStrib • jsouhan@startribune.com