Tag: Commissioner Roger Goodell

Civil Rights leaders meet with Roger Goodell, call for replacement of Rooney Rule

Civil Rights leaders called for the replacement of the Rooney Rule in a meeting with Commissioner Roger Goodell

Civil Rights leaders met with Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday and called for the NFL to replace the current Rooney Rule.

“However well-intentioned, the effect of the Rooney Rule has been for team decision-makers to regard interviews with candidates of color as an extraneous step, rather than an integral part of the hiring process,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said in a statement, noting that the NFL currently has only one Black head coach, two fewer than when the Rule was established. “The gravity of the situation is long past the crisis point.”

The Rooney Rule is a policy established in 2003 that requires teams to interview candidates of color for head coaching and senior football operation positions.

It has led to controversy over whether teams are interviewing candidates simply to fulfill the requirement or are seriously interested in those they meet.

Rev. Al Sharpton hit on that exact point.

“The Rooney Rule has been proven to be something the owners used to deceptively appear to be seeking real diversity,” Sharpton said.  “We must have firm targets and timetables.”

Sharpton said the National Action Network will be approaching states and municipalities to stop public funding and tax incentives to NFL stadiums until these firm commitments on timetables and goals are solid and public.

“NAN also has begun talking to members of Congress about Congressional hearings since public funds are being used to uphold this biased enterprise,” Sharpton said. “Lastly, we will be going to major advertisers telling them they  cannot continue to use our dollars in this unacceptable economic arrangement.”

The situation percolated last week when former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against the NFL and most of its member clubs — specifically, the Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos.

Flores is claiming that he and several other potential Black head coaches have been denied opportunities to advance in the NFL due to the league’s racist hiring practices and flagrant violations of the Rooney Rule.

Jon Gruden admits disparaging Roger Goodell in emails

More troubling emails were sent by Jon Gruden, these ripping NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden has another email problem.

On the heels of a Wall Street Journal report earlier this week that Gruden wrote a racist trope about NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith in 2011, it was revealed Sunday the coach admitted to disparaging NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in other messages.

The ESPN report said the league would not specifically say what Gruden wrote about Goodell. However, Gruden fessed up to Chris Mortensen.

“I was in a bad frame of mind at the time [in 2011], and I called Roger Goodell a [expletive] in one of these emails too,” the Raiders coach told ESPN on Friday night. “They were keeping players and coaches from doing what they love with a lockout. There also were a lot of things being reported publicly about the safety of the sport that I love. I was on a mission with high school football [in the Tampa, Florida, area] during that time, and there were a lot of parents who were scared about letting their kids play football. It just didn’t sit well with me.”

One powerful voice is calling for the NFL to handle the situation with a strong response.

“The insensitive remarks made by Jon Gruden about DeMaurice Smith are indicative of the racism that exists on many levels of professional sports,” Rod Graves, the executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance,  said in a statement Sunday morning. “Furthermore, it reveals that the journey for African Americans and other minorities in sports, is riddled with irrepressible mindsets at the highest level. It is our hope that the League and team ownership will address this matter with a remedy commensurate with these painful words. This is yet another inflection point in a society fraught with cynical social blinders, absent of respect for the intellectual capacity and leadership of minorities. When will it end?”

Gruden’s emails also included harsh words for a handful of team owners who were involved in the 2011 labor disagreement that led to a lockout.

Report: NFL takes over Washington Football Team workplace investigation

Commissioner Roger Goodell told Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder the NFL is taking over the investigation into its workplace.

The alleged sexual harassment of women in the workplace of the Washington Football team gave rise to stunning headlines once the Washington Post broke the story.

More eyebrows were raised when owner and questions asked when owner Daniel Snyder said the team would run the investigation into the numerous incidents.

That’s not happening anymore. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke to Snyder and told him the NFL will be taking over the probe.

The Washington Post summed up the breadth of the scandal in this article.

The original investigation detailed 15 women who said they were sexually harassed and discriminated against in the workplace.

When one thought the story could not become more sordid, it did. The Post reported videos were made of outtakes from the cheerleaders’ 2008 calendar shoot. Former SVP Baker said he was present when the former senior vice president and play-by-play broadcaster Larry Michael told staffers to make the unauthorized video for Snyder.

There have been numerous calls for Snyder to be forced to sell the team. It will be fascinating to see what determination the league makes and what action follows.

Commissioner Goodell lays out plans in memo to all 32 NFL teams

Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to teams, alerting them about the upcoming season and reopening of facilities.

Commissioner Roger Goodell reached out to all 32 NFL teams Wednesday, alerting them to the protocols regarding the upcoming season and regarding the reopening of their facilities.

“It is impossible to project what the next few months will bring,” Goodell wrote. “Uninformed commentary that speculates on how individual clubs or the league will address a range of hypothetical contingencies serves to constructive purpose and instead confuses our fans and business partners, complicates the operations of other clubs, and distracts from the careful planning that is needed right now.”

The memo describes plans for teams to have a “safe and phased reopening.”

Phase 1 would allow for up to 50% of a team’s non-player employees to occupy the facility on any given day, up to a maximum of 75.

No players would be permitted in team buildings, unless resuming a course of rehabilitation that was already underway when facilities were first closed.

That phase could begin as soon as May 15. After that, the league will weigh its options for Phase 2, though teams are encouraged to refine their own policies in accordance with local law and fluctuating conditions.

NFL officially expands playoffs from 12 to 14 teams starting in 2020

Two more teams will qualify for the NFL playoffs after 2020 regular season.

The NFL playoffs just got bigger. The league officially expanded the postseason from 12 to 14 teams Tuesday.

League owners voted to expand the playoff field making official a move that had been expected since the approval of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The vote took place as a conference call after the league meeting in Palm Beach, Fl, was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the new format, each conference will have an additional wild-card berth. Only the top seed from each conference will receive a bye, leaving the remaining six teams per side to face off in the wild-card round.

  • There will be a total of three wild-card teams per conference.
  • The No. 2 seed in each conference will host the No. 7 seed in the wild-card round.
  • Wild-card weekend will feature back-to-back tripleheaders on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10. CBS will broadcast one of the new games, scheduled for a 4:40 p.m. ET kickoff on Jan. 10, and it will be streamed on CBS All Access. That game will also be aired on Nickelodeon in a production geared toward a younger audience. The other game will be shown on NBC, its streaming service Peacock and Spanish-language Telemundo on Jan. 10 at approximately 8:15 p.m. ET.

NFL.com added this piece of information:

Per league data, since 1990, when the playoffs expanded from 10 to 12 teams, 44 of the 60 teams that would have claimed the seventh seeds had winning records, including 10 different 10-win teams. Only the 1990 Dallas Cowboys would have made the playoffs with a losing record over that span in a 14-team format.

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1245058922987356161

Had the rule been in place for the past season, the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers would have made it into the postseason field.

Report: Commissioner Goodell sends memo NFL Draft will go on April 23-25

Commissioner Roger Goodell has let all teams and their executives know the 2020 NFL Draft will go on as scheduled, April 23-25.

The show won’t go on in Las Vegas. It will go on, however, as Commissioner Roger Goodell sent all 32 NFL teams nd their executives a memo Thursday the draft will go on April 23-25.

Report: NFL to close team facilities due to coronavirus pandemic

The NFL is planning to close all team facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday at 6 p.m. local time.

The NFL will close all facilities to virtially all personnel in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

The paper learned of the decision through a memo Commissioner Roger Goodell sent to clubs Tuesday outlining rules put in place to ensure the league “continues to conduct itself in a responsible way,” and that teams “operate on a level playing field.

Sam Farmer of the Times reported Goodell’s memo states the guidelines will be implemented at 6 p.m. local time Wednesday and the league will assess the situation in two weeks.

  • The only exceptions to the closure are employees (such as athletic trainers) or physicans) who are providing ongoing medical treatment to players.
  • The director of facilities or security personnel needed to maintain the physical security of the facility and its contents.
  • Technology personnel necessary to maintain the security and operational capabilities of the IT network of each team to enable remote work.

This makes the second major piece of news Farmer and the Times have broken in less than a week. Earlier, he reported the league planned to operate its April 23-25 draft from a studio setting.