Robert Kraft defends Roger Goodell: "The way he has handled this situation is excellent"

Relax everyone. He was there to promote something else and this came up. Yes, he should have been better prepared (depending on what was out at the time). He improvised with the usual cliches. "Oh, he is doing a great job" etc.

Kraft's subservience to Goodell is bordering on the pathetic. There reaches a tipping point where the owner's lack of support of the team as opposed to the league shakes the confidence of the fan base that he cares more about winning than profits. Unfortunately, it appears that the once great Mr. Kraft has reached that stage. It's time to turn over the team to your son.

And now Goodell's claiming that Rice was ambiguous as to whether or not he hit his wife... but Ozzie Newson has said that Rice was totally forthcoming about it, and Rice has gone ahead and told OTL that he admitted everything.

Goodell caught in another lie. Still doing an excellent job?

Newsom vs goodell? Hmmmm I don't know if either is a good source but I would bet on goodell since Ozzie had more to lose. So much BS out there right now, still we don't know who the unnamed law enforce person is that sent the video....maybe Santa clause? Or the tooth fairy? Why isn't the DA commenting?

There are so few facts in all this but the one fact that remains is Ray Rice is an animal.

SB39 said:

Ya 10 years ago ESPN cancelled "Playmakers" which was about a fictional football team but hit a little too close to home with regards to things going on in the NFL. It was both critically acclaimed and highly rated (highly rated as far as cable TV goes, that is)
Good point.

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Still have Playmakers saved on the EHD. That was a great show. I still remember how pissed off I was with the cancellation notice was handed in.

Ironically, ESPN/the NFL need to grow a set of marbles. I didn't see the Premier League cancelling Footballer's Wives because it was too representative of what life as a BPL star would be like.

More support for Goodell's botching the initial handling of the Rice situation, and for making inaccurate claims in defense of his handling of the situation:

“We did not ask the Atlantic City casino directly for the video,” Goodell wrote. “Again, our understanding of New Jersey law is that the casino is prohibited from turning over material to a third party during a law enforcement proceeding, and that doing so would have subjected individuals to prosecution for interference with a criminal investigation.”

At the request of ESPN’s Keith Olbermann, ESPN’s John Barr spoke to Paul Loriquet, director of communications for the Attorney General of New Jersey. Loriquet disputed Goodell’s claim.

“Our interpretation of the law is that it would not have been illegal,” Loriquet told Barr. Loriquet told TMZ the same thing.

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...asino-legally-could-have-given-video-to-nfl/

I am relatively ignorant on NFL procedures.

QUESTIONS

1) What is the NFL's maximum penalty for a first offense of spousal abuse? I thought that it was 6 games.

2) What was the NFL's maximum penalty for a first offense at the time of the crime?

3) To what degree can a team penalize a player already sanctioned by the league?

4) I presume that cutting a player is not considered a punishment. Is that correct? I presume that will be the position of BALT.

5) Does the timing of arrest or conviction with regard to crimes have any relevance to NFL or team action? Or is the NFL and the teams able to wait until the police do their thing, and then each make their own additional judgement and punishment.
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I suspect that you guys are right. This issue will make juicy headlines for months, and for months after the filing of suits against the league and BALT by the Rice's.

http://www.tmz.com/2014/09/09/ray-rice-video-wife-janay-instagram-statement/
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I don't know how the league can justify a change in punishment, and certainly not beyond the retroactive application of the new minimum. BALT kicked him off the team. The league should have done nothing additional, except as the result of an appeal by someone to the league. The league now has a legal mess and may very well end up paying the Rice's.

mgteich said:

I am relatively ignorant on NFL procedures.

QUESTIONS

1) What is the NFL's maximum penalty for a first offense of spousal abuse? I thought that it was 6 games.

2) What was the NFL's maximum penalty for a first offense at the time of the crime?

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The new policy created 2 weeks ago announced it would be 6 games for domestic abuse, so I guess that is also the maximum. At the time of the crime, there was really no policy in place and therefore no maximum, although historical precedent was players got a game or 2 at the most.

mgteich said:

3) To what degree can a team penalize a player already sanctioned by the league?

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I've heard many reports saying the league cannot punish a player that a team already punished, and a team cannot punish a player that the league has already punished. I cannot say I know that for sure 100% is true, but I believe I once read that somewhere.

(That policy does not make sense to me because suppose a player majorly messes up and his team only gives him 1 game then that would mean the league could not do anything further. So take my above response with several grains of salt)

mgteich said:

4) I presume that cutting a player is not considered a punishment. Is that correct? I presume that will be the position of BALT.

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Yes that is correct, so long as they pay him everything they owe him. I do not believe Rice had any unpaid-but-guaranteed money owed to him at the time he was cut, so the Ravens are perfectly free to just cut him loose.

mgteich said:

5) Does the timing of arrest or conviction with regard to crimes have any relevance to NFL or team action? Or is the NFL and the teams able to wait until the police do their thing, and then each make their own additional judgement and punishment.

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It's really case-by-case. IMHO there is far too little consistency.

mgteich said:

I suspect that you guys are right. This issue will make juicy headlines for months, and for months after the filing of suits against the league and BALT by the Rice's.

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Ray Rice has no basis to file a suit and even if he did, it would be a grievance, not a lawsuit.

mgteich said:

I don't know how the league can justify a change in punishment, and certainly not beyond the retroactive application of the new minimum. BALT kicked him off the team. The league should have done nothing additional, except as the result of an appeal by someone to the league. The league now has a legal mess and may very well end up paying the Rice's.

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The league has no legal liability here. They are within their right to suspend someone and while suspensions are often appealed, players don't get reimbursed for missed money. The Ravens cut Rice, so how can he argue he is missing money? The guy is currently unemployed.

Another day and more lies. How stupid does the NFL ( BOB KRAFT) think the public is?

A nice read on the vanishing act of Roger Goodell:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11545517/roger-goodell-gone-ground

"Good job", Rog.

If Goodell really wants to salvage this situation then he needs to step up publicly, admit mistakes, and truly and sincerely commit to fixing things. But I suspect that that kind of hutzpah just isn't in his nature.

Surely, I have missed something.

SUMMARY ONE
1) The penalty for spousal abuse was 0-2 games until 2 weeks ago.

2) Rice was given a 2 week suspension.

3) There was a public outcry that the penalties for spousal abuse were insufficient.

4) After some study, the NFL penalty was increased to 6 weeks for the first offense.

5) There was more public outcry about Rice.

6) Goodell bowed to public pressure and suspended Rice indefinitely.

7) Rice appealed, through the union. He indicated that sentence had already been pronounced and it should not be changed. Also, I would think that the union will argue that Rice was subject to the rules and precedents at the time of the incident.

CONCLUSION BY ALMOST EVERYONE
Goodell acted terribly in not exacting enough punishment and should resign.

CONCLUSION BY KRAFT (after consulting with his staff and lawyers)
Goodell act correctly (excellently is the unfortunate word that he used).

SOME THOUGHTS
Personally, I do not see what Goodell should have done. At best, he might have changed the penalty to a 6 game suspension, and indicated that this was based on new evidence, noting that the old policy did not prohibit a 6 game suspension.

I agree that the punishments for abuse and drugs should be different. Drug penalties should be less and abuse penalties should be higher. Both issues are being studied. Changes to both have occurred in the last month. Isn't this what should happen?

mgteich said:

Surely, I have missed something.

6) Goodell bowed to public pressure and suspended Rice indefinitely.

CONCLUSION BY ALMOST EVERYONE
Goodell acted terribly in not exacting enough punishment and should resign.

CONCLUSION BY KRAFT (after consulting with his staff and lawyers)
Goodell act correctly (excellently is the unfortunate word that he used).

SOME THOUGHTS
Personally, I do not see what Goodell should have done. At best, he might have changed the penalty to a 6 game suspension, and indicated that this was based on new evidence, noting that the old policy did not prohibit a 6 game suspension.

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I think the bolded part is key. I think that the general perception is (1) that Goodell took this issue lightly, made at the very least egregious errors in his original handling of the Ray Rice case (interviewing Rice's wife along with her husband and not making stronger efforts to obtain the tape evidence) and perhaps actually was complicit in shielding Rice, and gave him only a comparative slap on the hand, (2) that everything that Goodell has done subsequent to that has been done only in response to public pressure and the threat of lost viewership and/or sponsorship rather than out of a true commitment to addressing the problem, and (3) that nothing that Goodell says can be trusted because he has no integrity and will do whatever he thinks expedient to line the pockets of the owners and save his job.

The NFL is facing a major crisis right now. Lack of consistency and inaction in addressing situations such as Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald and Adrian Peterson and new charges facing Jonathan Dwyer suggest that this problem is far too common in the NFL. Corporate sponsors - who have to compete aggressively in an open market, and who are generally fairly sensitive to public perception issues - are coming out and making statements and/or withdrawing player and team support. Meanwhile the NFL is hunkering down in a bunker-mentality, hoping that things will blow over, and trusting that the lack of alternatives and a bullet-proof product will be enough to weather the storm.

What Goodell could do is to publicly address this issue in a non-controlled environment, own up to past mistakes, and make sure that there is a clear and consistent policy that is uniformly enforced. Right now you have teams acting unilaterally and inconsistently and making blunders all over the place, with no clear direction from the league. That's just not acceptable.

Each day the situation gets worse. Rice has been released and banned indefinitely after the second video surfaced.
Peterson was deactivated indefinitely after a second incident was reported. Hardy, who had been found guilty by a
a judge, was finally deactivated indefinitely. Same with the running back.
Meanwhile, McDonald continues to play and another incident from the past was revealed today. Brandon Marshall
had an incident when he was with the Broncos. He received a one game suspension. The parties to the abuse wrote
to the NFL office with no response.
Goodell's current strategy seems to be to remain in hiding and hope the owners do the right thing.

Jimke said:

Goodell's current strategy seems to be to remain in hiding and hope the owners do the right thing.

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The right thing? Like give Roger another huge raise?

mayoclinic said:

If Goodell really wants to salvage this situation then he needs to step up publicly, admit mistakes, and truly and sincerely commit to fixing things. But I suspect that that kind of hutzpah just isn't in his nature.

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Um you do realize he's already done all those things, right? Of course when the league commits to fixing things, people criticize them for just reacting to negative PR and that its all coming "too late".

SB39 said:

Um you do realize he's already done all those things, right?

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*citation needed.

Haley said:

*citation needed.

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*pick up a newspaper every once in a while

He met with the media when he announced the new policy. He admitted they handled the Ray Rice suspension poorly and were therefore implementing the new 6 games for first offense policy.

SB39 said:

Um you do realize he's already done all those things, right? Of course when the league commits to fixing things, people criticize them for just reacting to negative PR and that its all coming "too late".

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No, he hasn't. Not even close.

Saying "we've made mistakes" as a generic statement while waffling or prevaricating on every specific isn't enough. Making statements that are contradicted by other authorities within 24 hours of making them isn't enough. "Committing" to fixing things and then standing by while new infractions are reported every week isn't enough. Enacting a new policy and then having inconsistent enforcement of it isn't enough. Letting teams decide invidivually whether players need treatment - or even worse, say that it is up to the player - isn't enough. Letting things get to the point where your corporate sponsors have to come out and publicly berate your response isn't enough. And all of the "negative PR" is continuing to come out because it is obvious to the vast majority of people that these things aren't nearly enough.

SB39 said:

*pick up a newspaper every once in a while

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I am not asking for a rude, flippant response. I am asking for you to back up your own argument. This is not an unreasonable request and I would thank you to not take offense to requests of this nature. When you asked me for sources previously, did I become rude with you? No. I listed sources for you.

If you want to be convincing, you must back up your points. Anything less is just spam.

SB39 said:

He met with the media when he announced the new policy. He admitted they handled the Ray Rice suspension poorly and were therefore implementing the new 6 games for first offense policy.

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Goodell had a staged interview (not even a press conference because he knows his story doesn't hold up to such scrutiny) and proceeded to lie to America about how things went down. How in any way is this "to step up publicly, admit mistakes, and truly and sincerely commit to fixing things"? Take note, there are three actions listed there. I expect you to back up how he has done all three of these things.

http://thebackuppunter.com/2014/09/10/roger-goodell-ray-rice-cover-up/
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/...to-public-owners-should-ask-him-to-step-down/

Haley said:

I am not asking for a rude, flippant response. I am asking for you to back up your own argument. This is not an unreasonable request and I would thank you to not take offense to requests of this nature. When you asked me for sources previously, did I become rude with you? No. I listed sources for you.

If you want to be convincing, you must back up your points. Anything less is just spam.



Goodell had a staged interview (not even a press conference because he knows his story doesn't hold up to such scrutiny) and proceeded to lie to America about how things went down. How in any way is this "to step up publicly, admit mistakes, and truly and sincerely commit to fixing things"? Take note, there are three actions listed there. I expect you to back up how he has done all three of these things.

http://thebackuppunter.com/2014/09/10/roger-goodell-ray-rice-cover-up/
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/...to-public-owners-should-ask-him-to-step-down/

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He met with the media a couple weeks ago.
He admitted they messed up the Rice suspension.
He implemented new, stricter punishments systems.

The rest is just haters gonna hate.