Goodell: NFL Owners meeting discussion on player conduct

 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been a man under fire in 2014 in relation to player conduct policies and legal issues – most notably his handling of the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson incidents off-field.  On October 8, following the NFL Owners meeting, Goodell gave a brief press conference outlining several topics that came up before committees, including how the league, its representatives and owners will address these issues moving forward for all 32 teams.

Goodell opened his press conference by stating,

We had a tremendous focus today on our approach to social responsibility. As all of you know, we educated the owners and other executives that were in the room today. That education will continue with all personnel starting this month and I think the reaction was very good to that. They found it informative, obviously educational which is the intent of it.

We also spent a great deal of time talking about our policies – what we need to do, potential changes to our policies, how we would make them more effective, how we would make decisions maybe on a more timely basis and some of the alternatives in there. To that point, we talked specifically about the investigation process.

Questions were debated about whether we should continue to be completely reliant on law enforcement or have independent investigations and the time period in which those investigations would occur. There were discussion about basing decisions, maybe interim decisions, including leave of absence, on findings of fact by a court or some legal entity, a law enforcement entity.

We talked about discipline procedures, which is something that we have been talking about for quite some time within the NFL circles about what’s the right process to be able to come to conclusions either on short-term decisions about having access to continue to play or the longer-term decisions about ultimate discipline and whether the due process continues until the legal process continues.

All of these things we were debating today and of course there was a great deal of focus too on what support services we can provide to the family, particularly in the cases obviously of domestic violence to the victim, to children if that’s appropriate and to the perpetrator himself or herself. There was a great deal of discussion about all of those options and it was a very, very significant discussion. I would say we probably spent five of the hours today on these issues.

As for a new NFL drug program, the owners meeting was the first time everyone was in attendance, including new owners of the Buffalo Bills, Terry and Kim Pegula.  DeMaurice Smith (NFLPA) and Goodell have apparently reached a consensus about HGH testing and are looking to set a “gold standard” throughout the league.  Meetings with the Players’ Union discussed what power, under the new plan, that Goodell would have to discipline unilaterally.  “We had a good discussion on the floor and we had a lot of feedback from the clubs abut how they feel different aspects of the process should go,” said Goodell.  “Speed, efficiency and obviously fairness are the most important things for them.”

Goodell admitted that strong feelings by owners were shared during the meeting(s) as to how to handle players who are arrested but have yet to see the legal process play out in terms of playing status.  “(The owners) obviously understand the balance between due process and protecting the integrity of the game,” Goodell told the press, “and sometimes that puts you in a difficult position.  When there is strong evidence to the fact that a violation occurred, the question is whether there should be some type of interim step like a paid leave, and allow the individual to focus on the legal issues, the legal challenges, their family, whatever the issues may be and allow the team to continue to focus on football.”  Goodell stood by the position that the league had no control over the judicial process and that even independent investigations may be needed to verify and gather information that would verify if an infraction of the player conduct policy had occurred.

As for the fact that this was the first time Goodell had addressed all 32 owners since the Ray Rice incident handling by the league, he indicated he was open with the members about where the league failed.  “I’ve been very open publicly abut where we made mistakes,” said Goodell, “and what we’ve done to correct them to make sure that they don’t happen again…we went immediately into other aspects of what we’re trying to do in this area to make sure we have the right policy in place; to do the right kind of things to make sure that we come to the right conclusions going forward.”  Goodell said it was “his job” to admit mistakes and to look for solutions moving forward.

As for a timeline on the implementation of new personal conduct policy policies, Goodell was frank in sharing that meetings with outside experts, either military or law-enforcement, former players and the union would continue in order to get things implemented as son as possible.  The emphasis will be on making sure it is done correctly.  “We won’t let perfect get in the way of better,” said Goodell.  “But we certainly want to make sure that we get the right kind of policy in place as quickly as possible.”

Factors involved

According to Goodell the first thing that was addressed regarding the new policy was that if a player is found, by reasonable facts, that they have committed a violation of the league personal conduct policy, an interim step should be taken.  He referred to paid leave as an example.  Secondly, the meeting addressed what would occur if there was not only a violation of the policy, but a criminal act committed.  Players will be given due process by the league and be allowed to work with state and national judicial systems at that time.

Regarding punishments based on legal proceedings (such as Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy), questions were brought up about the “exempt list” and whether it would be available to all teams before a new policy is in place.  “Obviously, that’s something that we would make available to all clubs depending on the circumstances, of course,” answered Goodell.  He pointed out that different clubs may consider how long the leave period may be and what the final outcome of the player’s situation may be as “something that’s going to have to be determined in the process”, which appears to point that negotiations are still on the table and nothing finalized at this point.  “Whoever makes that final determinatin will have to have some type of standards that they’ll be able to balance that kind of issue.”

Former FBI direct Robert Mueller has been given full authority to conduct an investigation and the league will fully participate, but as for whether he or the players’ union would dole out discipline, Goodell would not comment.  “We look at the players as a very important element to this and the union and we respect their views on this,” said Goodell.  “We want to make sure that we have the opportunity to understand their views…we’ll continue t have an pen dialogue and I believe we will come to the right conclusion.”

Goodell admitted that legal issues are complex yet taken seriously.  “Obviously they are not calls you want [to receive],” said Goodell.  “So when we get incidents that are violations of the law and our personal conduct policy, they are taken seriously.”  One thing Goodell pointed out was that with around 3,000 individual players in a given year added to coaching staff and executives, the NFL is a large organization with moving parts.  “(Domestic violence/sexual assault) isn’t just a football issue,” said Goodell.  “This is a societal issue. All of us as a society have to deal with this…and when it happens, deal with it so that it’s clear what the consequences are…If we, at some point in time, can make an impact on the larger society, great.  But our focus is on getting our house in order.”

Future Role

Goodell said that during internal debates there has been large discussion over who would oversee discipline hearings.  Goodell asserted that during the debates, the consensus was that the process should be effective, efficient and fair.  “Our players will be satisfied and our other employees will be satisfied…I wouldn’t say there is a consensus other than when things affect the integrity of the game.”  Goodell said that he got the impression that owners around the league feel it is important for the commissioner to retain the authority to oversee discipline hearings, but that they are also focused on constitutional by-laws and the collective bargaining agreements.

As fr the August 28 (2014) memo regarding domestic violence sanctions, Goodell maintained that the focus was and is on discipline, but that during the owners meeting talk involved improving education and training, not just on discipline.  One consideration is that, with aggravated circumstance, a six game suspension be in order.  A second offense would be “banishment from the league.”  “Recognizing that what we want to do is truly have a policy that is clear and strong,” said Goodell, “we are not going to accept this kind of behavior and the punishment should be clear and as swift as possible.”