Roger Goodell Dumps Ice Water On Head For ALS Awareness, Is Clueless

In an effort to make people hate Roger Goodell less, the person in charge of Roger Goodell's Twitter account posted a video of the commissioner doing the Ice Bucket Challenge today.

For those unaware, the Ice Bucket Challenge has been recently popularized by Pete Frates, a former Boston College baseball player with ALS. People pour buckets of ice water on their head, usually donate to spread awareness of ALS, and challenge their friends through the internet. If you're on Facebook, you've probably seen a few videos; if not, they look like this. It's raised a lot of money, and in all it's a good thing.

Is there any reason for Goodell not to get in on this feel-good thing? There are a few. He is, after all, the commissioner of the largest professional sports league in the United States, which has attempted to deny that its business causes life-altering brain injuries; formed a puppet committee before covertly paying retired players with disabilities; dragged its feet when studies in the past 10 years said head trauma was linked to serious diseases like dementia or Alzheimer's; finally acknowledged that link when it was inundated with lawsuits from former players showing symptoms of CTE and, yes, ALS; eventually paid out money to all the permanently injured players only on the stipulation that it didn't have to admit liability; and was forced to remove the cap on its settlement because it wouldn't be enough money for everyone suing.

On your uncle's Facebook wall, the Ice Bucket Challenge comes off as a feel-good gesture that can make the world a little bit better. Coming from Goodell, it comes off more like sending a couple a Christmas card after you ran over their kid.