Former Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo made some hard-hitting revelations on Thursday about how his former team and other NFL teams have been known to handle domestic violence. Angelo told Josh Peter of USA Today Sports that there were “hundreds and hundreds” of domestic violence incidents during his 30 years in the league that never resulted in any discipline for players.
“I made a mistake,” Angelo admitted. “I was human. I was part of it. I’m not proud of it. … We knew it was wrong. For whatever reason, it just kind of got glossed over. I’m no psychiatrist, so I can’t really get into what that part of it is. I’m just telling you how I was. I’ve got to look at myself first. And I was part of that, but I didn’t stand alone.”
Angelo added that he would simply find out if everyone was OK after being informed of a domestic violence incident and then “move on.” But on Friday, Angelo told CSN Chicago’s “Kap and Haugh” show that his words were “twisted” and “taken out of context.”
“That ‘hundreds and hundreds’ was taken totally out of context,” he said, per John Mullin of CSNChicago.com. “When I was making a point to this person, I was making a point that over my 31 years in the National Football League I’ve seen a lot of changes. There were hundreds and hundreds of things over those years that I’ve seen that have gotten better. Domestic violence is one of those.
“There were no hundreds and hundreds [of cases] of domestic violence. I would have no knowledge of that or have any idea how I would authenticate that … That was never the intent of [the writer’s] conversation with me.”
Angelo said the intent of his conversation was to throw support behind NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and that he would find it “shocking” if Goodell ever knowingly covered up a domestic violence incident.
While the “hundreds and hundreds” remark may have been misinterpreted, it was quite obvious Angelo was saying there were instances of domestic violence when he was with the Bears that went overlooked, both by himself and others. Former Bears defensive end Phillip Daniels does not remember any of them.
Jerry Angelo comments …… I played for the #Bears and don't remember one single incident of domestic violence. Players would know! Wow!
— Phillip Daniels (@PhillipDaniels) October 10, 2014
“I don’t want to say this fellow twisted my words but was never my intent,” Angelo added. “I used that as a point of embellishing how things have changed over 30 years. That was it.”
If people are shocked by anything, it should be that Angelo was so candid with his initial remarks. We know NFL teams partake in coverups to avoid PR disasters. Former Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer even admitted to doing it at the collegiate level while he coached the Sooners. The context of what Angelo said is hardly a surprise. The fact that he said it is.
