Goodell on Rooney Rule: 'It's clear we need to change'
At his annual State of the NFL address to media members in Miami on Wednesday, commissioner Roger Goodell admitted it is time for the league to re-evaluate the Rooney Rule.
The rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for openings such as head coach and general manager, has come under fire in recent years as being ineffective. This year, Ron Rivera was the lone minority candidate hired to be a head coach, and the Browns' hiring of Andrew Berry as their new general manager this week brought the total of minority GMs to two.
"Clearly, we are not where we want to be on this level," Goodell said. "We have a lot of work that's gone into not only the Rooney Rule but our policies overall. It's clear we need to change and do something different.
"There's no reason to expect we're going to have a different outcome next year without those kinds of changes, and we've already begun engaging in those changes."
Earlier this month, Steelers president Art Rooney II -- whose father, Dan, helped craft the Rooney Rule -- said the league would indeed review the rule this offseason.
Among the other topics discussed by Goodell:
--He said the NFL is "doing everything to help" wide receiver Antonio Brown, whose latest off-field drama saw him turn himself in last week on charges of burglary with battery (a felony), burglary of an unoccupied conveyance and criminal mischief after an alleged incident with the driver of moving truck in Florida.
"In Antonio's situation, I think the first thing is, for all of us, to think about the well-being of Antonio," Goodell said. "To understand what Antonio's going through. ... We want to help get him on the right track, and get him in a position where he is in a zone where he thinks he can be successful in life. And we are confident that can happen. We want to work to do that, and from our standpoint, that's the first step. The first step is making sure that we're doing everything to help Antonio."
The wide receiver played in just one game this season after being cut by two teams, most recently the New England Patriots. Following a trade to the Oakland Raiders last offseason, Brown was released toward the end of training camp after continued conflict with the organization that started when his helmet was considered to no longer be in compliance with NFL safety rules.
Brown was released by the Patriots after sexual and personal misconduct accusations were made against him. He remains on the commissioner's exempt list, which prohibits him from playing while an investigation is ongoing.
--The NFL and NFL Players Association continue to discuss the potential of adding a 17th game to the regular season, but Goodell pledged that player safety and a desire to "get it right" will dictate the likelihood of a 17th game, rather than simply rushing to add the game.
"So we believe we have made the game safer, we've made it better, and we believe we can restructure the season in a way that will be smart for the future of the game. If those discussions are in the context of our labor negotiations, they're in the context of working with our medical people, and we've shared all that. We continue to have that kind of dialogue with our players, and we'll continue to have that."
--Mexico City will host NFL regular-season games for at least the next two seasons. As for the potential of a franchise moving to Europe and calling London home, Goodell said the driving forces behind any decisions about that remain whether such a move could be done "in a competitive fashion" and whether a team could thrive in the market.
--Goodell wants to choose the location of the next available Super Bowl (LIX in 2025) by the end of 2020, and while Las Vegas is not out of consideration, how the city does hosting the NFL draft later this year will play a role in whether the league thinks the city could be a viable Super Bowl host.
--Field Level Media
