SAN FRANCISCO -- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear on Friday that he's prepared to crack down on egregious on-field penalties.
After a season that saw Giants wideout Odell Beckhamsuspended after drawing three personal fouls in a loss to the Panthers, Goodell announced during his Super Bowl Week press conference that he's spoken to the Competition Committee about a drastic fix.
"I believe the league should pursue a policy where if there are two personal fouls in a game, there's an automatic ejection of a player," Goodell said. "I believe that that's consistent with what we believe are the safety issues, but I also believe it's consistent with what we believe are the standards of sportsmanship that we've emphasized."
Game officials and former Giants coach Tom Coughlin drew plenty of criticism for allowing Beckham to stay on the field. Goodell wants to remove the gray area.
"We should take that out of the hands of the officials when it gets to that point," Goodell said. "They obviously will have to throw the flag. When they do, we will look to see if we can reach an agreement on the conditions of which they can be ejected. But that's a Competition Committee matter. We'll discuss it further with the Player's Association in February at the Combine, as well as in March."
Said Goodell: "I've recommended already to the Competition Committee to at least consider what I think is consistent with our goals of trying to bring sportsmanship back in, the kind of play to keep the focus on the game, keep the focus on the great plays happening."
Player safety has been a flagship cause of Goodell's from Day One. It will be interesting to see how this plays out between the Competition Committee and the NFLPA, but the Beckham game alone makes this a worthwhile conversation.
