Clark Hunt applauds Roger Goodell’s move to consult players on decisions

Clark Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, is happy that Roger Goodell has been seeking players’ counsel on recent NFL rule changes.

Earlier this week, Roger Goodell and the NFL made an announcement that they would begin to relax rules on end zone celebrations beginning in 2017. After significant backlash against needless fines and penalties, the No Fun League seemed to hear the concerns of both players and fans that the game should be fun and entertaining, and removing a player’s natural emotional expression after scoring a touchdown should be a part of the festivities.

In the process, Goodell announced that he’d had over 80 conversations with former and current NFL players to ask their opinions about how the league should handle the matter. The move to begin to seek players’ input on these types of decisions was applauded not only by the press but even by NFL owners. Specifically, Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt was glad to see the move on Goodell’s part.

"“The players’ perspective is important, we truly are partners in the business,” said Chiefs CEO/chairman Clark Hunt. “And that’s something certainly from an ownership standpoint that we’ve never lost sight of. I think the commissioner’s initiative here in recent years to try and include them more in the decision-making process is a positive. That should serve us both well going forward.“The benefit is making sure that the players feel like they have input. They’re as important to the success of the NFL as any of the teams are. And I think helping them feel like partners is important.”"

It will be interesting to see how these sorts of overtures that bolster player inclusion and input will affect the upcoming labor negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. If everyone comes to the table with already strong ties of communication, it could make the process much smoother in the long run for both sides.