Roger Goodell Q&A

Evening Guys,

As I believe I was the only one going, I figured I should try and give a wrap up of some of the points that came out of the Roger Goodell Fan Forum Q&A session on Saturday afternoon in a posh London hotel!
I think last year they put the video up on NFL UK (in which case you will be able to find me!) but they may not.

- The NFL will be looking into the new kickoff position at the end of the season. This is basically because the league was not expecting over 50% touchbacks, but they still consider it unlikely the rule will actually change.
- There is little the NFL feels it is able to do to counter the feigning of injuries such as that observed in the Giants Rams game as they can't assume someone isn't genuinely hurt. However the action has been discouraged since the event and retrospective action could be taken if the league felt necessary.
- The league will not be following any form of blanket policy to enforce NCAA suspensions on players when they enter the NFL. The T. Pryor situation was bourn more out of wishing to push players away from declaring for the Supplemental Draft for non academic reasons as the league wants players to remain in college as long as possible and enter the Draft properly.
- Goodell is frustrated by the lack of progress on HGH testing, but believes the league will be starting player testing soon.
- The NFL talked over the "Rooney Rule" with the FA this week, but otherwise does not engage with other sporting leagues regarding internal discipline "advice".
- The NFL is happy with the new challenge system, but is concerned that it is making the games too long as the average game now runs to 3 hours 7 minutes.
- The NFL is committed to multiple UK games at Wembley and will intend for this to start next year (this has since received most of the press attention following the Q&A). The NFL doesn't feel the time is right to move elsewhere in Europe as they would rather make a sucess of the UK first on a sustained multiple game level.
- We were asked our opinion by Goodell on the multiple games. The "crowd" voted in favor of games split around a month apart as opposed to games running on consecutive weekends. The NFL is still debating each option logistically.
- The NFL would also like to establish some form of regularity under the multiple game system, namely a team that returns frequently - if not every year then alternate years to see if they can boost the fanbase for a specific team.
- Somebody suggested two stats for interceptions - one for receiver induced INT's... naturally he was wearing a Brady jersey and his request was comically rejected with Goodell stating "I'm pretty sure Tom Brady is convinced he has never thrown a single interception that was his fault too".
- Jerome Bettis never particularly wanted to go to Pittsburgh before it happened, but felt it ended up being the perfect fit.
- Bettis put both the lack of "feature backs" and full backs down to the evolution in college football including the influx of the "spread offence" meaning that there simply is not enough talent coming through the draft causing the NFL to slowly evolve to follow suit.

I'm sure i'm missing plenty of important points, but I can't remember atm. I will update if I remember more, but that's a bit of a flavour for you guys

Anyway, it was a pretty great session. Quite relaxed, more so than I expected with no OTT security. Goodell was cracking jokes at the various people who asked questions and generally kept it from feeling at all serious. Dan Rooney (Pittsburgh Owner, Ambassador to Ireland) was about... although he is about 90 so was off in the back. Jerome Bettis was there complete with Superbowl ring, joined in the Q&A later on and I even got to shake his hand and have a nice picture with him and Goodell

crazy_dave23 wrote: "I'm pretty sure Tom Brady is convinced he has never thrown a single interception that was his fault too".

Should post the pic.

Great work Dave, sounds like a great experience and shaking the hand of the Bus, savour that.

Fair play to Goodell, he's not everyone's favourite but he always comes across as genuine and that relaxed and jokey manner you can't help but warm to him....

Grizzly wrote:Great work Dave, sounds like a great experience and shaking the hand of the Bus, savour that.

Fair play to Goodell, he's not everyone's favourite but he always comes across as genuine and that relaxed and jokey manner you can't help but warm to him....

Yep, too be blunt he was pretty awesome, though he should be given the amount of public appearances he probably does! Bettis was surprisingly entertaining and chatty too

[/quote]
Yep, too be blunt he was pretty awesome, though he should be given the amount of public appearances he probably does!quote]

How come every time I see David Cameron on TV I just want to put my fist through the screen ?
No-one gets more air time than him.

Difference is that Goodell is a lawyer - he's trained to say the right thing. Cameron is a politician and they spend their working lives practicing saying nothing of any real consequence or meaning!

Grizzly - You echo the voice of many of us with your assessment of "Call me Dave".

It's his twisted wee side-kick Osbourne that really winds me up though. "We're all in this together"..... aye right, if that's the case then I'm still waiting to hear when I've to get my £10k skiing holiday just like you got.

Having said that, not that I'd thank you for a £10k skiing holiday but I'd happily trade it for a few weeks touring around the States in style during the NFL season and catching a few games!

Don't get me started - chief execs taking 10%+ pay rises when they begrudge giving their staff 2%, and politicians saying they feel our pain. Get with the real world before the revolution starts you idiots!

Oh you did get me started...

It is kind of still on topic - Goodell is pretty much a politician in his role. Point taken though.

Sorry, point taken! Didn't actually realise we had a swear filter though - I thought we were all just very polite!!

Anyway, really interesting to hear about the Q&A and also to hear what Goodell himself is like. Sounds like a decent bloke. To be fair though, he does come across on telly like quite a laid back character.

Apologies again for straying from the topic!

The swear filter is annoying as hell.