Goodell tackles Raiders, ‘Deflategate.’
Commissioner talks Las Vegas, “Deflategate”
HOUSTON - Nothing produces awkward NFL moments quite like watching the commissioner parry all those thorny issues involving the league’s oldest and newest troublemakers — the Raiders and Patriots. Reporters spent time poking
Roger Goodell about “Deflategate,” the Raiders’ now-threatened move to Las Vegas, and other delicate topics at the commissioner’s less-formal, less-crowded and, frankly, lessnewsy pre-Super Bowl news conference, held on a Wednesday this year instead of the traditional Friday afternoon slot.
Going sans necktie and speaking in a room about half the size as his usual Super Bowl venue, Goodell insisted nothing was off-kilter between the league and either team.
He said “there’s a great deal more work to be done” before the Raiders can move to Las Vegas, a reality reinforced after both casino magnate Sheldon
Adelson and a backup financier, Goldman Sachs, pulled out of the stadium deal this week. The league is supposed to decide on the Las Vegas move in March.
Goodell said it was unlikely a casino owner could own a stake in a stadium, which would seem to disqualify Adelson anyway. About the more delicate question of whether it’s good business for the league, which has always disdained gambling, to stick a franchise in the gambling capital of America, the commissioner said the league is in touch with the reality that gambling “exists throughout our world.”
“We’ve always said there’s a fine line between team sports gambling and the NFL,” Goodell said. “We want to protect the integrity of our game and that’s something we’ll always do.”
The commissioner was only four days away from potentially handing the Lombardi Trophy to Patriots owner Robert
Kraft. It would be the most awkward commissioner-owner handoff since 1981, when Pete
Rozelle presented Raiders owner Al Davis with the trophy while Davis was suing the league over Rozelle’s attempt to block the team’s move from Oakland to Los Angeles.
Fittingly, Goodell took five questions about the Patriots, almost all of them designed to put him on the defensive. The core of it: “Deflategate,” and the four-game suspension he levied against Patriots quarterback
Tom Brady to start the season. Among the highlights: Why didn’t Goodell attend a Patriots playoff game, while heading to Atlanta twice? Has he spoken with Brady? How is he getting along with Kraft?
“We have a disagreement about what occurred,” Goodell said. “We have been very transparent about what we think the violation was. We went through
a lengthy process. We disagree about that. … I’m not afraid of disagreement. And I don’t think disagreement leads to distrust or hatred.”
Family matters: Brady hopes his mother will be in the stands on Sunday despite dealing with an undisclosed health issue.
The New England Patriots quarterback acknowledged that his mother, Galynn Brady, has been ill but wouldn’t provide any details.
“It’s personal with my family, and I’m just hoping everyone’s here on Sunday to share in a great experience. But it has been a tough year,” Brady said. Tagliabue regrets words: Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is apologizing for remarks he made decades ago about concussions.
In an interview with the Talk of Fame Network, Tagliabue admitted he erred in 1994 in saying concussions were “one of those pack-journalism issues.” He also claimed then that the number of concussions “is relatively small; the problem is the journalist issue.”
Up for election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, Tagliabue spoke out about a major blemish on a record highlighted by labor peace throughout his 17-year tenure.
“Obviously,” he said, “I do regret those remarks. Looking
back, it was not sensible language to use to express my thoughts at the time. My language was intemperate, and it led to serious misunderstanding. I overreacted on issues which we were already working on. But that doesn’t excuse the overreaction and intemperate language.
Watt ready: J.J. Watt is healthy after missing most of the season following back surgery, and the Houston Texans star is eager to show that he can be even better.
“Just to know that there’s new levels to reach that I haven’t even reached yet is exciting, and I think that’s one of the biggest things for me is knowing that,” he said Wednesday. “It’s not like I’m just out here trying to come back and be a football player again. I’m still trying to continue to capitalize on what I was before and be even better than I was before … if I’m not trying to be the best player ever then I’m doing everyone a disservice.”
Watt, who has named the defensive player of the year for the past two seasons, missed training camp and Houston’s four preseason games after surgery in July to repair a herniated disk. The defensive end started the team’s first three regular-season games before re-injuring his back and undergoing season-ending surgery.
It was the first time in his career that he’d missed a regularseason game after starting all 16 in each of his first five NFL seasons. The two back surgeries came after off-season surgery to repair a groin injury.