Commissioner is in town for Super Bowl XLVII but lingering bitterness over Bountygate has restaurant trade up in arms
If the position of commissioner of the National Football League doesn't come with a personal chef, Roger Goodell may want to think about investing in one this weekend.
New Orleans pauses its Mardi Gras celebrations this week to welcome the equally glitzy carnival of Super Bowl XLVII to its Superdome. Mr Goodell is one of the highest-ranking sporting dignitaries in town, but if local football fans have their way he'll be going without gumbo and leaving jambalaya-less.
Goodell is a marked man in the Crescent City, with a series of wanted – or rather, "unwanted" – posters addressing local service-industry workers. His face and name sit atop the unflinching legend: "DO NOT SERVE THIS MAN". Signs and banners across the city echo this instruction.
But just why is the city serving up this sizeable portion of cold shoulder?
Goodell invoked the wrath of New Orleans Saints fans earlier this season when he oversaw a series of penalties that many see as being directly responsible for the Saints not competing in what could have been a euphoric home Super Bowl. The penalties – some of the harshest in NFL history – were handed down in March 2012, after "Bountygate" was uncovered. This was a scandal over a programme administered by the then Saints defensive coach Gregg Williams, whereby players were paid bonuses for deliberately inflicting injuries on selected opponents.
While it's generally held that such systems were practised by other NFL teams, the Saints were made an example of, fined a league maximum of $500,000, stripped of draft picks and, to top it all, their talismanic head coach, Sean Payton, was suspended for the entire 2012 season.
New Orleanians have a fierce sense of civic pride, especially when it comes to their 2010 Super Bowl-winning Saints. Cue a mountain of ill will and a town angrily waiting for Goodell to show his face.
One of the worst ways New Orleans could punish anyone would be to withdraw its renowned cuisine and hospitality, and it seems many are heeding the clarion call of the "unwanted" posters. The aptly named Caleb Cook, head chef at fashionable new restaurant Saint Lawrence in the French Quarter, is one of the more vocal Goodell opponents:
He is not welcome in this restaurant. I have a feeling Goodell will have a hard time getting table service in the traditional manner.
A groundswell of local wait staff and bartenders said they would, beyond even refusing service, punch the commissioner in the face or stamp on his testicles; a local lawyer said that he would defend anyone charged with assault, pro bono. A doggie bag and directions to the local hospital for you, sir?
Local Saints season ticket holder Leonal Chicas, however, is more fair minded than most. "Yes, Bountygate was handled unfairly," he said. "But Goodell was instrumental in the restoration of the Superdome and also in bringing the Super Bowl back to New Orleans. He also played a big part back in 2006 in preventing the Saints franchise from moving to San Antonio."
Whether or not fans are prepared to call it even, Goodell must be mighty wary of eating out. Perhaps it would be politic to avail himself of some French Quarter restaurants' delivery services. And if I were him, I might think about taking a packed lunch to the Super Bowl on Sunday.