'Thousands' of fans help distribute Roger Goodell 'Clown Face' towels for Pats-Chiefs
Barstool Sports is distributing 60,000 towels for the NFL Kickoff game
By
Will Brinson
•
2 min read
Ever since the Deflategate ruling, which resulted in a protracted court battle and ended up with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady being suspended four games in 2016, Roger Goodell has been pretty unpopular in the greater Boston metropolitan area and/or all of New England. Many of these fans, and media members alike, wondered when Goodell would come back to Gillette Stadium for a Pats game.
He was a no-show for the AFC Championship Game, which featured lots of "Where is Roger?" chants from Pats fans. He and Brady had their awkward moment at the Super Bowl, and Goodell was spotted in Foxborough at a preseason game, but Pats fans want to see Goodell in Gillette for a regular-season game. As we've expected, they will get their wish on Thursday night, when Goodell attends the NFL Kickoff game between the Patriots and Chiefs.
There was no ducking this game; Goodell goes to the opening game every year. The Pats won the title, they get to kick the season off and it's a "take your medicine" situation for the commissioner.
The medicine might be pretty gross-tasting. According to a report from Kalyn Kahler of The MMQB, Barstool Sports is planning to distribute a healthy amount of towels featuring Goodell with a giant clown nose on them.
You might recall the image from a shirt Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia wore while deplaning post-Super Bowl; Goodell and/or folks in the league office were "seething" over Patricia's decision and reportedly still miffed even as late as July of this year.
So Barstool is apparently doubling down on the dislike for Goodell -- David Portnoy, the founder of the site, is a big Patriots fan -- and has enlisted the help of "thousands" of volunteers to help hand out towels with that same image:
Army of Volunteers. #OperationClownFace #thenorthremembers 🤡🤡 pic.twitter.com/yWwdrDq4r9
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 6, 2017
"This idea was really based on the ongoing story that Goodell was actually bothered by the shirt," Portnoy told Kahler. "All Patriot fans despise Goodell. It's not like time has healed wounds."
So as a result, Barstool decided to distribute 60,000 (!) light blue towels that feature Goodell's face with a clown nose on the front and a Barstool Sports logo on the back.
This is, in no uncertain terms, really smart marketing. There is a very good chance that a lot of these make it into Gillette Stadium on Thursday night and that, during portions of the game, the towels are spotted on television.
Based on the amount of towels and shirts being displayed in and around Gillette on social media, there are going to be a lot of these things inside the Chiefs-Patriots game.
Just don't plan on seeing Goodell's reaction a bunch during the game. According to Kahler's story, Goodell is going to handle any on-field duties well in advance of the majority of fans showing up for the game. The Patriots, per Kahler, won't show Goodell on the Jumbotron during the game, although an NBC spokesperson said the network, which is broadcasting the game, would plan on showing Goodell during television coverage as news/gameflow warranted it.
Goodell is not expected to sit in Patriots owner Robert Kraft's box during the game.
