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Goodell vows to put ‘house in order’
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EMBATTLED National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday promised to put the sport’s “house in order” amid a firestorm over its handling of off-field violence involving players.
In a bid to shore up wavering public trust after allegations of domestic violence and child abuse by players, Goodell said the league plans to set up a new personal conduct committee and draft new rules.
He said he hoped to have those in place by the season-ending Super Bowl, which takes place in early 2015, and insisted “nothing is off the table”.
“We will get our house in order,” Goodell told a news conference in New York. “The policy was not up to standard. The same mistakes can never be repeated.”
Goodell accepted some personal blame but defiantly added he has not considered stepping down over the problems that have outraged NFL fans and worried sponsors — even while admitting the response by the league and individual teams had been less than ideal.
Goodell also promised transparency and accountability on Friday but it has done little to lessen criticism over his handling of charges swirling around Ray Rice, the running back who helped the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl title in the 2012 season.
The commissioner initially banned Rice for two games over a February incident in a casino elevator in which Rice knocked Janay Palmer — then his fiancee and now his wife — unconscious.
After a video showing the actual punch was posted online last month, Rice was promptly cut by the Ravens and banned from the league indefinitely by Goodell.
“I got it wrong in the handling of the Ray Rice matter,” Goodell said. “So we had to go back and fix our policy.”
The commissioner and some NFL teams have been heavily criticized for lenient or delayed punishment of Rice, Adrian Peterson and other players involved in recent domestic violence cases. Less than three weeks into the season, five such cases have made headlines.
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