Horse Racing and the NFL are sharing a moment…Thoughts on the New York Times Horse Racing Series

Horse Racing and the NFL are sharing a moment…Thoughts on the New York Times Horse Racing Series:
It appears to me that Horse Racing and the National Football League are simultaneously having a moment, one of those times in history that people remember.
Both sports are the subject of severe scrutiny, perhaps self-inflicted, from the national media. The NFL and Horse Racing are under the microscope for what some in both sports think is “Part of the Game” while the press and public opinion hold a radically different idea. The two sports face versions of the same problem.
The NFL received the message loud and clear, stopped denying and rationalizing and elected to respond aggressively to the problem. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell responded to media pressure regarding bounties paid to players for intentionally injuring opposing players and putting them out of the game. He responded with some of the most severe sanctions on the New Orleans Saints in the league’s 92-year history, and among the harshest punishments for an on-field incident in North American professional sports history.
Greg Williams, defensive coordinator was suspended indefinitely. Head coach, Sean Payton, was suspended for the entire 2012 season, the first time in modern NFL history that a head coach has been suspended. General Manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for the first eight games of the 2012 season. Assistant head coach Joe Vitt was suspended for the first six games of the 2012 season. The Saints organization was fined $500,000 and forced to forfeit their second-round draft selections in 2012 and 2013. Four current and former Saints players were suspended after being named as ringleaders in the scandal, with linebacker Jonathan Vilma being suspended for the entire 2012 season, the longest suspension for an on-field incident in modern NFL history.
My bet is that behavior in the NFL will change because the penalties are meaningful in terms of severity. Maybe this is an idea that our racing commissions could use…make penalties severe enough to assure a change in behavior. Decisions made by a few owners, trainers and veterinarians have led Horse Racing down this path. I believe that incentives always work. The NFL has decided that severe consequences will be an incentive to change behavior.
I bet it works.