From "Slavery" to "Gestapo"

[rodeo]

Seriously. They need to get more relevant with their comments.

"Goodell is acting like a vaccine gave him autism." -Toomer

"We find it hard to come to terms when Goodell won't even show his birth certificate." - DeMaurice Smith

[Mr. Scot]

Toomer now... (link)

“Obviously I didn’t fully understand the meaning of what I said,” Toomer said in a statement. “I do now. It was a stupid, inappropriate and offensive thing to say. I apologize for my choice of words, and I apologize to Commissioner Goodell for the offensive characterization.”

Toomer said he gave more thought to what he had said after the media “rightfully [had] taken me to task for my remarks.”

So although Toomer still doesn’t seem to think too highly of Goodell, he no longer views Goodell as similar to the Nazi secret police.

Yeah, it was dumb, and his response essentially amounts to "I used a word on national TV without knowing what it meant" which whether you believe it or don't believe it arguably makes him look even dumber...

Still, gotta give him credit for manning up and apologizing. It's not the trend these days. Most people continue to defend themselves (sometimes even more loudly) when they know they've been caught doing something they shouldn't have.

Toomer didn't go that route. For that, I give him credit.

[mountainpantherfan]

I'll give him a lot of credit for admitting that he didn't completely understand the meaning behind the term. However, I still say his comparison wasn't that bad of one and that the NFL have been gestapo-like in some of these cases. No, they aren't leading people off to their deaths but the gestapo acted as police, judge and jury. Right or wrong, being given this power by the players or not, this is what the NFL have been acting like. But I also agree that a better choice of words would have been better as well.

[Mr. Scot]

I think the image he brings up with that comparison is way too extreme.

What he ended up doing was causing more negative reaction to his own statement than to anything Goodell did.