Patrick Mahomes, Other Kansas City Chiefs Have Questions For Roger Goodell And NFL

How ugly will it get for the NFL if Brian Flores refuses to settle his lawsuit over the league’s shaky relationship with Black head coaches? Despite all of that focus on concussions, why did they explode by 18% this season?

Is Tom Brady really retired?

All sorts of questions swirl around the boss of an industry that made a record $18 billion last season and boasts of reaching annual revenue of $25 billion within the next four years. That means somebody’s perspective was missing Wednesday in Phoenix during Roger Goodell’s yearly Super Bowl press conference.

The NFL players.

You had Donna Kelce, America’s Mom this week after she gave birth in the 1980s to the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jason and the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis, the Kelce brothers opposing each other Sunday in Super Bowl LVII. You had the NFL’s designated youth reporter of the moment (“Hey, this is the Play 60 super kid”). You also had hundreds of media folks who actually get paid to ask questions for a living.

Goodell listened to each person, then he nodded (either literally or figuratively) and then he responded.

When you’re in charge of that industry with all of those questions, and when you’ve made $63.9 million after each of the previous two NFL seasons, you better have answers, and the commissioner did.

Some were striking: On the Pro Bowl evolving from a sloppy annual mess into a series of skills events and three different flag football contests. “There’s just a opportunity here for us to grow our game globally with flag football,” Goodell said, presumably referring to just the Pro Bowl and not to the NFL overall. “We’ve seen a lot of people participate in that and how they’re embracing that, and seeing NFL players do that? I think it’s just going to launch us even faster.”

Some were ridiculous: On the slew of blown and weird calls by NFL referees this season, especially during the AFC Championship Game when the Chiefs got an extra play down the stretch against the Cincinnati Bengals. “I don’t think it’s ever been better in the league,” Goodell said of NFL officiating, with a baffled look over the question, which was baffling that he was baffled.

Anyway, if players from a Super Bowl team could squeeze in questions during one of these Goodell State of the NFL addresses, what would they ask?

“Man, um. Anytime we can get more money for the players, I would say that. So I probably would say that,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes told me and other reporters a few hours before Goodell spoke. According to Forbes, Mahomes is the NFL’s fourth-highest paid player for 2022 at $51.5 million.

Which means Mahomes was joking.

In contrast, several of Mahomes’ teammates had serious matters (sort of) they would wish to address with the guy who officially assumed his role in September 2006 after he started as an intern at NFL headquarters in New York under Pete Rozelle, the league’s commissioner of commissioners.

“If I could ask Roger Goodell a series of things? Wow, that’s a tough one,” said Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon, but then he quickly responded before I could answer his question. “I’d ask Roger Goodell, ‘Why do we get fined so much for throwing the ball into the stands?’ I just got fined a couple of weeks ago for doing that, so to be honest, that would be my first and only question.”

Harrison Butker also discussed footballs, but in a different way.

“One thing I’d want to talk to him about is the ball pressure before games,” said Butker, the Chiefs’ placekicker who literally booted the Chiefs into the Super Bowl over the Bengals in the last seconds of the AFC title game. “I know it’s a small thing, but it affects us kickers. You know, the rule is you put the ball at 13 psi indoors, where it’s 70 degrees, and then if you go outside in Kansas City where it’s 20 degrees, that ball pressure has lowered significantly, and that ball just is not flying as far.”

Anything else?

“I haven’t been as involved with what’s going on as I should be, but I think he’s done a fine job,” said Butker, in his sixth NFL season, and his Goodell analysis sounded like that of Chiefs’ backup quarterback Chad Henne in his 15th.

If you do the math, Henne’s career in the league nearly spans Goodell’s time as commissioner.

“Obviously, we’re in a great place right now — the NFL, and I think the way he has gone about his business has been great, and us players, we’ve been getting our input as well,” Henne said, but he did have some questions, especially regarding the Collective Bargaining Agreements.

“The main thing I would want to ask him is: How has it all evolved?” Henne said. “I’ve been through, what, three CBAs now? So obviously I’d want more money and all of that, but the rule changes. Why are we going about this? I’d just love to sit down with him and see the evolution of the game even before I got here.”

There also was Khalen Saunders, the Chiefs’ defensive tackle of 6-foot and 324 pounds. He grimaced, then he laughed, saying, “So, as a defensive lineman, we’ve got to get these league officials to start protecting us instead of the quarterback. You got guys tearing ACLs trying to NOT sack the quarterback. It’s getting harder and harder to sack the quarterback legally.”

Saunders thought some more, and he added, “Being commissioner, that’s a hard job to have, but he’s just doing his job. I ain’t got no issues with the guy. Great in my book, except he’s gotta get that quarterback thing together.”

That quarterback thing and some other things.

A bunch of other things.