The NFL is once again under fire for mishandling a domestic violence case, but Roger Goodell does not feel the criticism is warranted.
In an appearance on WFAN’s “Chalk Show” Wednesday night, Goodell was asked by Gary Meyers of the New York Daily News if Brown should have been punished more harshly.
“What you see here is a [Personal Conduct Policy] that’s evolved. We’ve learned a lot, but these are complex matters,” the commissioner said, per James Kratch of NJ.com. “When you talk to the domestic violence experts, these are difficult matters to deal with.”
After the Ray Rice disaster, the NFL set a baseline punishment of a six-game suspension for domestic violence offenders. Why, then, has the six-game minimum not once been applied?
“You have rights, you have families that you have to be concerned with, privacy issues,” Goodell said. “Yes, you want to make sure you’re doing everything possible to address these (alleged incidents) when they happen, but you also want to deal with them to prevent them from happening. … I think we’ve made tremendous progress. Can we make more and will we make more? Of course.”
With regard to Brown specifically, Goodell insists the league got it right because the only known incident was the one from May 2015, and the domestic violence charge against Brown was later dropped.
“Here’s the issue, the discipline that occurred on the one game was for the event on May of 2015,” Goodell said. “That was the only one that we were able to get of all the different things that we’ve heard. The decision was made by our team after we had the evidence to be able to support the one game. We knew we would get challenged (by the NFL Players Association) and we were able to uphold it.”
Now that new information has come to light, Goodell insists league officials will “aggressively pursue” the case and take further disciplinary action. No matter what the NFL does now, it’s already too late.
Goodell claims the NFL did not receive much help from law enforcement in learning about Brown’s history of abusing his ex-wife, but what about the incident that took place at the Pro Bowl? Once again, Goodell and his cronies have completely mishandled a sensitive situation.
