Count us among those who could use more -- not less -- Dennis Miller in this life.
He is the rare man who seamlessly shifts from chatter of Tim Tebow to comparing this season's replacement refs to members of the Warren Commission wading through looped footage of the Zapruder film.
When Miller dialed in to "The Rich Eisen Podcast," the comedian and former "Monday Night Football" commentator pumped the brakes on the one-liners when the subject of player safety came up.
"I don't know what Goodell's doing," Miller said. "It is a violent game. And if he really believes what he's believing, then I find what he's doing a little distasteful. He should try to subvert the game more, he should try to stop the game. I don't care if he's the NFL Commissioner. If he thinks the violence these men perpetrate on each other is a bad thing, I don't know how, in good conscience, he cannot drop out of that job and go to work against the NFL."
Miller argued that any 21-year-old kid would swap the risk of injury for what pro football offers: riches, women and hitting people on a weekly basis. If Goodell really wanted to help the players, Miller argued, he'd reduce the schedule down to 12 games.
It wasn't all gravity and darkness. There was plenty of on-air mirth, including a precious riff that saw Miller name-drop Pepper Johnson and Ray Handley in the same sentence before weighing with Rich the concept of a "netherworld."
Do yourself a favor: Listen in.
You can listen to each episode of "The Rich Eisen Podcast" at NFL.com/richeisen or subscribe on iTunes.
