NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged he personally erred in governing the football league’s response to a domestic-violence incident involving former Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice, but said he would not consider resigning and would instead focus on revamping the sport’s rules and policies about player behavior.
“I made a mistake,” Goodell said at a press conference Friday. “I am not satisfied with the process we want through.” He later added: “We let our standards fall below where they should be.”
The response comes after days of intense scrutiny on the NFL and its handling of a variety of cases involving domestic violence by its players. The first and most notable instance involved Rice, who was caught on video hitting a woman who is now his wife in an elevator. Various parties criticized the NFL for meting out only a short, two-day suspension. Goodell said the NFL didn’t have enough “voices at the table”and was relying on policies that were out of date.
Since that time, Minnesota Vikings player Adrian Peterson has been brought upon child abuse charges for hitting his young son with a switch hard enough to cause injury.
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The NFL has maintained a relative silence as public outrage grew, even though it has had an effect on its flagship product , televised football games. CBS, which paid a reported $200 million to $300 million to broadcast eight NFL games on Thursday nights this season, has reworked the opening segments to its “Thursday Night Football” in each of the two weeks the telecast has been on the air, favoring analysis over humor or music.
Some of the NFL’s biggest sponsors have also sounded a wary note. Anheuser-Busch InBev, which is the official beer sponsor of the NFL season and one of the biggest supporters of the annual Super Bowl, said earlier this week it was “concerned” about the way the league was handling the issue. Pepsi and Verizon, two other NFL sponsors, have remained supportive even as they acknowledged the problems. Goodell said he did not believe advertisers would pull their funds, but noted that sponsors “are not looking for talk. They want to see action.”
“I got it wrong on a number of levels,” Goodell said, noting that he was “sorry.” The NFL is partnering with two advocacy organizations that offer help to victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse he said, and will bring in outside experts to examine its current policies regarding player behavior.
“’There will be changes to our personal conduct policy,” said Goodell. “Nothing is off the table.” The NFL’s goal is to have its process completed by the Super Bowl. Incidents involving players and domestic violence, sexual assault, alcohol, firearms, child abuse will be met with “discipline” as well as education, he said.
Goodell said he believed he had the support of all of the NFL team owners. “I think they know we have already tried to do the right thing. Mistakes happen. I’m sorry for that. We are going to get this right.”
