Miami BBQ restaurant bans NFL commissioner Roger Goodell

A barbecue restaurant in Miami has banned National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell from eating in the establishment, going so far as to post an oversized photo of the commish with the tagline “Do not serve this man.” No, the NFL’s head man didn’t skip out on a tab or get into a drunken bar fight (although we’d pay good money to see that aired on Sunday Ticket). The restaurant’s owner is outraged at the way Goodell has harshly treated the New Orleans Saints as a result of the “bounty gate” scandal, which saw several player and coach suspensions including year-long bans for head coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis, and linebacker Jonathan Vilma. As it turns out, however, the restaurant in question is part-owned by Vilma…

So the move appears to merely be a statement by Vilma, who has taken the NFL to court to try to fight his season long suspension in proceedings which are still ongoing a few weeks ahead of the start of the season. We’re no fan of players intentionally injuring each other above and beyond the rules of the game if that’s really what was going on in New Orleans, but we’re not exactly fans of the way Mr. Goodell has acted as judge, jury and executioner in the matter. Mainly we’ve got to give style points to Vilma for coming up with the very funny poster and having the guts to actually put it up in his restaurant. Goodell is still his boss, after all. Suing your boss over a labor dispute or an employee rights dispute is one thing. Publicly making fun of him takes real guts…

Just to add to the richness of the story is that it was reported by OCNN (not a typo), which is apparently an news outlet owned by Chad Johnson, who just got fired by the NFL’s Miami Dolphins for let’s say unfortunate reasons. And the co-owner of the restaurant with Vilma is DJ Williams of the Broncos, who is also currently fighting a suspension of his own. So we’re guessing DJ had no issue with the statement that Mr. Vilma is trying to make here. So much drama. And to think, the NFL season hasn’t even started yet.