Time magazine has announced their finalists for person of the year, and among the eight chosen is NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Several of you may be wondering why Goodell would be receiving such an honor despite a year where the public views that he may have dropped the ball as commissioner in 2014.
Well, the name of the award is a bit misleading. It isn’t actually to celebrate what a person has done, but rather the candidates are chosen based on their “perceived influence on the news over the past year.” With that being said, Goodell is a finalist for the title along with some famous and infamous people in the American public’s eyes.
Editor Nancy Gibbs announced the eight-person slate on Monday’s TODAY show, with Goodell joined by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, singer Taylor Swift, Ebola caregivers, and protestors in Ferguson, Missouri.
The “winner” will be announced Wednesday. And Goodell surely hopes the “honor” begins and ends at just being nominated.
Although the talks of domestic violence in the NFL seemed to have quieted down, the Robert Mueller investigation into the handling of the Ray Rice case is still pending. Goodell being named Time’s person of the year would mean a new chance for the magazine to dredge up all of the NFL’s mishandling of domestic violence cases, amongst other things.
[h/t NBC Sports]