there.Right alongside them will be their fath

NEW YORK -- A few years into Roger Goodells tenure as NFL commissioner, a grad school professor polled students on who was the most effective leader in the major sports. Goodell romped.That was before the league locked out the players in 2011. Before the Saints bounties scandal. Before the behavior of Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson -- and so many others -- led to a stricter player conduct policy.Before game officials were locked out. Before Tom Bradys suspension in Deflategate. And before issues over head trauma and concussions brought player safety questions to the forefront.A more recent informal survey by that professor saw Goodell finish a weak third behind the NBAs Adam Silver and PGAs Tim Finchem.Yet, for all of the public (and players association) angst regarding Goodell, who enters his second decade in charge on Thursday, he couldnt be held in higher esteem by most of the 32 team owners -- his bosses.I know how passionate he is about the game, how committed he is, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says. Hes spent his professional life on behalf of the National Football League. Ive seen him under fire. He has made good decisions. We know what a tough job it is. Thats been borne out and accentuated by the very criticism that he receives. Hes in a job that has a lot of thankless aspects to it. ... I think hes exceeded any expectations that I might have had for him.Heres where the NFL has gone in Goodells decade.FINANCESThe league to which Goodell, 57, has dedicated his entire adult life has never been more profitable. According to Forbes, the average worth of an NFL franchise is just under $2 billion. Jones Cowboys are the worlds most valuable sports franchise at $4 billion. The leagues lowest-valued team at $1.4 billion, the Buffalo Bills, just signed a huge naming rights deal for its stadium.Overall league revenues are approaching $13 billion; when Goodell replaced Paul Tagliabue in 2006, they were half that. Goodell wants to reach $25 billion in the next decade or so.Perhaps helping reach that goal, the NFLs presence internationally has grown. It returns to Mexico City in November for Texans-Raiders in a sold-out Estadio Azteca. Three games are played annually in London, with the NFL branching out from Wembley to other stadia, and selling out.TV AND NEW VENTURESThe NFLs availability has expanded significantly on TV and digitally under Goodell. Flexible scheduling on Sunday nights led to better matchups later in the schedule. A night game was added on Thanksgiving. CBS (now joined by NBC) jumped into the Thursday night package of games already on NFL Network.Network TV deals are bringing in about $28 billion overall, and DirecTVs Sunday Ticket contract is worth another $1.5 billion a year to the NFL.Last season, 46 of the top 50 TV shows were NFL games, with Sunday Night Football the most-watched prime-time program for the sixth consecutive fall season. So who is holding the upper hand when renewal talks begin?Goodell also oversaw the expansion of the draft to three days, with the first three rounds in prime time, and has made it a traveling show. Two channels, ESPN and NFL Network, broadcast every selection.Rogers tenure has been one of tremendous growth for the NFL, and he has increased the impact the league has on American culture, says ESPN President John Skipper. He has faced intense scrutiny in how he responds to every situation, including from ESPN, and to his credit, he has remained true to his principles and the results of that vision are, by any objective measure, decidedly positive.The NFL also has found ways to monetize fantasy football, even as critics insist its a form of gambling. And everyone knows how aggressively the NFL opposes gambling.PUBLIC IMAGEGoodells popularity among the owners is unquestioned. Even the Patriots Robert Kraft, a long-time confidant of Goodells but a vocal opponent of the commissioner in the deflated footballs case that cost New England a first-round draft pick and $1 million, generally has been one of Goodells biggest boosters on other matters.Outside the NFL, his image has taken some heavy hits. While Goodell cites protecting the integrity of the game, the players union, fans, and advocacy groups protest his decisions. Loudly.Despite labor peace since 2011 (and through 2020), it has been an uneasy truce. The union challenges matters large and small -- its obligation, of course, in representing its players -- and often makes noise about reopening the collective bargaining agreement.Goodell insisted on keeping final authority over player discipline matters during the 2011 labor talks. As Goodell has erred, most notably in the Rice case with an initial two-game suspension so inappropriate it led to a new player conduct policy, the union has pounced. Several times, the NFL won in court. Several times, so did the union.Every time, the publics opinion of the commissioner diminished.The 2012 lockout of game officials was such a fiasco that following the Fail Mary call in Packers-Seahawks, a new contract quickly was worked out.Goodell also has been betrayed by his investigative force, which performed well in Michael Vicks dog-fighting case, but struggled with the Saints bounties. That saga ended with Tagliabue, of all people, serving as arbiter at Goodells behest, voiding suspensions for four players.Such incidents have damaged Goodells standing with many fan bases, most notably in New England and New Orleans.They have proved to have a terrible track record when it comes to investigations, NFLPA spokesman George Atallah says.CONCUSSIONSProbably the biggest challenge now for the NFL under Goodell -- until another oddball scandal hits -- is identifying and treating head trauma. Not just for current players, but for retirees; the league reached a settlement with former players that is now worth about $1 billion.Rules changes; the institution of comprehensive return-to-play protocols for all players evaluated for concussions; the hiring of independent medical professionals; advocacy for youth concussion laws in all 50 states; and financial investments in research all are positives of Goodells administration.But concerns about just how dangerous and health-affecting the sport is will continue to plague the NFL, which must find answers to any and all safety matters. Unquestionably, the end game always will lead to Goodell.---Sports Writer Schuyler Dixon contributed.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Fake NBA Jerseys .05 million next season unless Graham and the Saints subsequently agree on a long-term deal. The designation was released Monday after the deadline passed for NFL teams to use franchise or transition tags on players becoming free agents. Discount NBA Jerseys . Capitals head coach Adam Oates said Ovechkin was injured in the first period against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and clarified it was not a head injury. https://www.nbachinajerseys.us/ . Jon Montgomerys gold medal in skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre and his subsequent auctioning off of a pitcher of beer in the village square elevated him to folk-hero status. Clearance NBA Jerseys . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. Wholesale NBA Jerseys . Miikka Kiprusoff had just announced his retirement after a decade-long run in Calgary and it would be up to Berra and Ramo to fill the void. There are few sports that owe their origins to the ancient equivalent of a Bond movie -- but modern pentathlon is one of them.It was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, and combines all of the aspects of traditional combat.The basic premise is of a soldier trapped in a castle on a lake. He must fence his way out before swimming to the shore, riding an unfamiliar horse out of the village and running through a wood shooting at enemies.Modern pentathlon was first held at the 1912 Olympic Games and an event for women was added in 2000. It consists of fencing, swimming, show jumping, shooting and running.---ONE TO WATCH:Cheered on by a home crowd, Brazilian Yane Marques will be bidding to improve on the bronze medal she won four years ago.Modern pentathlon was a little known discipline in Brazil when Marques, who was born in a small town in the Brazilian northeast, took it up in 2003, becoming national champion just a year later.But a series of titles, including gold at the 2007 Pan American Games and becoming the first Olympic medal winner in modern pentathlon in the entire Southern Hemisphere has made the country sit up and take note.Marques also won gold at the 2015 Pan American Games and silver at the 2013 world championships, where she lost out to Olympic gold medalist Laura Asadauskaite.There are advantages: knowing the facilities, having a huge crowd behind me, my family being able to see me race, the 32-year-old Marques said. Aside from all this though, there is a very great pressure.The 32-year-old again faces stiff competition, with the top seven from London all returning.Asadauskaite of Lithuania will be favorite, along with Germanys Lena Schoneborn, the 2008 Olympic champion and 2015 World champion.---RULE CHANGES:The core sport remains largely the same since London 2012, but with the addition of a fencing bonus round, which sees the athletes compete in a one-on-one format on a single piste after the traditional round robin in a bid to up their score.The combined event has also been slightly altered to involve four 800m laps of running, instead of 1000m, each still prefaced by laser shooting at five targets, with the intention of restoring more weight to the shooting element.The introduction of the combined event was one of two dramatic changes between Beijing 2008 and Londonn, with the other being the replacement of air pistols with laser ones, for safety reasons.dddddddddddd---FAMILY AFFAIRS:For the first time in modern pentathlon history, two sisters will compete in the same Games.It will be a third successive Olympics for 24-year-old American Margaux Isaksen, who was fourth in London, just two seconds away from a medal, and a first for younger sister Isabella, 22.To be able to compete together with your sister, there is nothing more special, Margaux said. I think this could be the most special Olympics just in that respect.There could also be sibling rivalry on the mens team. Nathan Schrimsher was the first American athlete in any sport to qualify for the Rio Games and younger brother Lucas is his reserve teammate.Sydney siblings Max and Chloe Esposito will also both be competing in the modern pentathlon and the family link doesnt stop there.Right alongside them will be their father and coach, Daniel Esposito, who represented Australia in the sport in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and also qualified for the 1988 Seoul Olympics but had to pull out due to injury.Chloe, 23, finished a surprise seventh in London and is now targeting a first medal in modern pentathlon for Australia. It is 18-year-old Maxs first Olympic Games.---SKULDUGGERYOne of the biggest scandals in Olympic history took place in modern pentathlon during the 1976 Games in Montreal.Soviet athlete Boris Onischenko was one of the stars of the discipline. He had helped his country win the team event in 1972, where he was also an individual silver-medallist, and he won the world championship three times.At the age of 38, Onischenko was expected to bow out of his last Olympics with a medal.However, during the fencing section it was discovered that he had wired his epee so that he could trigger the electronic scoring system with his hand and register a hit at will.Onishchenko was disqualified and escorted from the athletes village by Soviet officials that very night.Two months later it was reported that Onischenko had been called before Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev for a personal scolding, dismissed from the Red Army, fined 5,000 rubles, stripped of all his sporting honors, and was working as a taxi driver in Kiev. ' ' '