Extra Points: Goodell, Raiders, JPP, Browns
On the same day the NFL announced that its owners have approved a new personal conduct policy for the league, Outside the Lines reporter Don Van Natta Jr. of ESPN.com has published a story suggesting commissioner Roger Goodell‘s testimony during Ray Rice‘s suspension appeal hearing was inconsistent with his public statements.
On September 10, Goodell wrote a memo to the league’s 32 owners in which he said that “on multiple occasions, we asked the proper law enforcement authorities to share with us all relevant information, including any video of the [Rice elevator] incident.” However, the 631-page transcript of Rice’s appeal hearing, a copy of which was obtained by Outside the Lines, suggests that the NFL never actually formally requested the elevator video from the one law enforcement agency that actually had it, the Atlantic City Police Department.
With Goodell and the NFL once again under scrutiny for questionable handling of investigative and disciplinary matters, let’s round up a few other notes from around the league:
- Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that the Raiders have “a much better chance” of moving to Los Angeles in 2015 than he had realized, adding that the possibility of the team relocating from Oakland to L.A. is “very legitimate.”
- While NFL teams rarely let their starting quarterbacks reach the open market, the early returns for the teams that locked their QBs up this year haven’t been good, writes Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead. The Bears (Jay Cutler), Bengals (Andy Dalton), Chiefs (Alex Smith), and 49ers (Colin Kaepernick) likely aren’t thrilled with the new deals for their respective signal-callers, considering all four teams project to finish with worse records in 2014 than 2013.
- Asked about his impending free agency, Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul said he’d “love to be a Giant for life,” but isn’t sure yet how things will play out (Twitter link via Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News).
- Although Browns kicker Billy Cundiff missed another key field goal on Sunday against the Colts, head coach Mike Pettine says Cundiff remains the team’s kicker, but “he knows he has to pick it up” (Twitter link via Jeff Schudel of the News-Herald).
- Adrian Peterson is still awaiting arbitrator Harold Henderson’s decision on his suspension appeal, and the Vikings running back continues to hold out hope that he’ll be able to return the field this season, NFLPA executive George Atallah tells Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
- Oregon State quarterback Sean Mannion will be represented by Athletes First agents Andrew Kessler and Dave Dunn for the 2015 NFL draft, tweets Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal.
NFL Owners Approve New Conduct Policy
1:33pm: The NFLPA has released a statement on the newly-approved policy, and the union predictably doesn’t sound happy about the league’s announcement. Here’s the statement, in full:
“Our union has not been offered the professional courtesy of seeing the NFL’s new personal conduct policy before it hit the presses. Their unilateral decision and conduct today is the only thing that has been consistent over the past few months.”
12:59pm: The league has issued a formal press release, touches on a few new details of the policy, and laying out how the investigative and disciplinary processes will play out in the event of a potential violation of the conduct policy.
For the initial discipline, the NFL will appoint “a highly qualified league office executive with a criminal justice background.” Goodell will handle appeals of suspensions. Additionally, a committee headed by Cardinals owner Michael Bidwil will review the conduct policy annually and recommend appropriate changes, with the help of outside experts.
12:29pm: After announcing earlier this season that he wanted to have a new personal conduct policy in place before the Super Bowl, commissioner Roger Goodell has beaten his self-imposed deadline by more than a month and a half. Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal and Albert Breer of the NFL Network (Twitter links) report that NFL owners voted today in Dallas on a new policy, approving the proposal. According to Breer (via Twitter), the proposed conduct policy was voted through unanimously.
As we noted this morning, the NFL Players Association was upset at not having been more involved in the creation of the new personal conduct policy, and the two sides had not reached common ground on a number of issues, so it will be interesting to see what the approved proposal looks like.
Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter links) have some early details, writing that some of the points of emphasis in the policy include prompt reporting of incidents, paid leave for those facing charges, and independent investigations of incidents (rather than relying on police investigations). Garafalo adds (via Twitter) that Goodell’s role under the new policy will be as an appeals officer only — a newly-created special counsel will oversee initial disciplinary rulings.
While some of those aspects of the policy should be good news for the NFLPA, the union intends to immediately study the new policy in search of provisions and topics that would be mandatory subjects of collective bargaining, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote earlier today. According to Florio, if there are terms in the policy that require collective bargaining, the NFLPA will file a “system arbitration” proceeding under the labor deal or initiate an action with the National Labor Relations Board, or both.
In other words, while the league’s owners may have unanimously approved the league’s proposal, the issue likely won’t be put to rest immediately. We’ll await further details on the intricacies of the policy and the union’s reaction.
Latest On NFL Personal Conduct Policy
The latest round of NFL owner meetings are set to take place today in Dallas, and one of the main topics on the agenda will be the creation and implementation of a new personal conduct policy for the league. While some reports have suggested that the NFL won’t be ready to vote on the proposal quite yet, Peter King of TheMMQB.com (Twitter link) hears that the league could push for the adoption of the new policy today.
The league appears to be moving forward with the new policy despite objections from the NFL Players Association. NFLPA president Eric Winston called recent meetings between the two sides a “farce,” claiming that the league had already finalized its policy before meeting with the union, according to Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports.
The NFL fired back by listing several objections to the NFLPA’s proposed policy, and many of those points of contention center around whether or not players should be punished in certain scenarios. Those scenarios include: after acquittal or when charges are dropped; when players are accused or convicted of misdemeanors (rather than felonies); and when the legal process is still playing out.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter links), the issue of paid leave when a player has been charged with a felony is still up for discussion. Additionally, commissioner Roger Goodell is willing to remove himself from the initial discipline process, creating a new special council for investigations and conduct. Despite that concession, the NFLPA is unlikely to be happy if a new policy is approved by owners today without any collective bargaining, so we’ll have to wait and see whether a vote actually takes place.
Latest On NFL Personal Conduct Policy
After dealing with high-profile off-field incidents involving running backs Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson this year, commissioner Roger Goodell indicated earlier in the season that the league intended to have a new personal conduct policy in place by the Super Bowl. However, a league source tells Adam Schefter of ESPN.com that a new policy isn’t as close to being finalized as had been hoped, and that the new policy may not be adopted until the new league year begins in March.
The NFL’s owners are meeting this Wednesday, and there was a belief that a new personal conduct policy would be reviewed and potentially voted on at that point. That’s what the NFL Players Association is expecting, according to union executive George Atallah, though he points out that there hasn’t been any collective bargaining since the NFLPA last met with the league in November about the issue (Twitter links). The NFLPA submitted a proposal to the NFL last month, but there’s been no indication of how seriously the league will weigh the union’s suggestions.
According to Albert Breer of NFL.com (via Twitter), the league at least has the outline of a new personal conduct policy ready to present to owners in Dallas this week. However, in a second tweet, Breer cautions that a vote won’t necessarily happen this week, and the proposal could still be reworked.
Among the points of contention for a new policy are Goodell’s role in the disciplinary process and how players will be disciplined during the legal process when they’ve been charged but not necessarily convicted.
NFL Issues Memo To Teams Following Rice Ruling
Following Friday’s announcement that Ray Rice‘s indefinite suspension has been overturned, allowing him the freedom to sign with any team, NFL general counsel Jeff Pash issued a memo to the chief executives and presidents of each of the NFL’s 32 teams. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has obtained a copy of that memo, a portion of which reads as follows:
“Earlier today, retired federal judge Barbara Jones issued her decision in the appeal filed by the NFLPA from the indefinite suspension imposed on Ray Rice. Judge Jones vacated the indefinite suspension, finding that Mr. Rice did not mislead the Commissioner in describing his actions toward Janay Palmer, who was his fiancée. The decision turned on whether Mr. Rice told the Commissioner that he “hit” Miss Palmer (rather than that he “slapped” her) and whether he claimed that she “knocked herself out” by striking her head in the elevator. Judge Jones found that when he met with the Commissioner last June, Mr. Rice sufficiently described his conduct and that his description was not misleading when compared to the later release of the videotape from inside the hotel elevator.
No part of Judge Jones’s decision questions the Commissioner’s honesty or integrity, nor his good faith consideration of the issue when he imposed the indefinite suspension on Mr. Rice. Nor is there any suggestion that the Commissioner had seen the video from inside the elevator before it became public, or knew of the contents of the video.
Judge Jones’s decision ends the disciplinary proceedings relating to Ray Rice. He remains free to sign with a contract and is eligible to participate without restriction upon signing a contract.
The decision has no bearing on the current work on a revised Personal Conduct Policy, nor on the initiatives announced by the Commissioner on August 28 regarding domestic violence and sexual assault. Similarly, the decision is limited to Ray Rice and should have no effect on any other pending or prospective disciplinary matters.”
The memo, which goes on for several more paragraphs, appears designed to alleviate any concerns team owners may have about Roger Goodell‘s role in the disciplinary process for personal conduct violations. The statement portrays Goodell as a victim of semantics rather than a commissioner who deliberately and arbitrarily punished Rice twice for the same violation and attempted to justify the ruling after the fact.
While that stance doesn’t come as a surprise, it’s still likely a disappointment for the Players Association. Rather than Rice’s case representing a turning point for personal conduct issues and the relationship between the league and its players, it appears the NFL will simply try to paint it as an isolated incident, an aberration that doesn’t reflect a larger systemic problem with the league’s disciplinary process.
Latest On NFL Personal Conduct Policy
The NFL Players Association got a win of sorts today when Judge Barbara S. Jones overturned the league’s indefinite suspension of former Ravens running back Ray Rice, but the decision won’t necessarily result in any major changes to the NFL’s disciplinary process. Tom Pelissero of USA Today reports (via Twitter) that the league expects to complete and announce a new personal conduct policy “in the weeks ahead,” and it remains to be seen exactly how much input the union will have on that new policy.
According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the NFLPA fears that the NFL will unilaterally implement a new conduct policy without any collective bargaining – and without accounting for the union’s objecting – following the next ownership meetings, which are scheduled for December 10. While that new policy might be an improvement on the current one, the league and commissioner Roger Goodell may not concede to independent arbitration for disciplinary matters and appeals, in which case we could see more cases like Rice’s, where the disciplinary process is somewhat arbitrary.
For the NFLPA’s part, president Eric Winston says the players just want to be involved in the creation of the new conduct policy, per Pelissero.
“If they want the buy-in of the players, sit down at the table with us and bargain,” Winston said. “If not, then they’re going to unilaterally do this, they’re going to keep messing up the game and we’re going to keep talking about these things, unfortunately, instead of a big matchup on Sunday …. Every player has rights. We’re not against discipline, and we’ve never been against discipline. But that discipline needs to be carried out in the proper fashion, within the rights both sides have negotiated.”
Rice’s suspension is far from the first case in which the NFL has issued a ruling that had no precedent and didn’t match up with the rules in the current conduct policy. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is embroiled in a similar situation now, having agreed to be placed on the exempt list, believing the time served would help alleviate any additional suspension. His suspension is currently under appeal, with a hearing scheduled for Tuesday. Still, in the case of Rice, a third party (Jones) called out Goodell and the league for an “arbitrary” process, and the NFLPA is hoping the ruling draws attention to what the union sees as a disturbing pattern.
“It’s starting to become a pattern now,” Winston said. “We’re having a lot of this overreaching, lack of due process, and so now (the league says), ‘Let’s make changes. Well, we only want to make the changes we want to make.’
“I’m not happy about this,” Winston said of today’s ruling. “There’s not a winner here. The judge said we were right, but we didn’t win. There’s been way too many of these.“
Ray Rice Wins Appeal, Eligible For Return
3:50pm: Rice has also released a brief statement (via Albert Breer):
“I would like to thank Judge Barbara Jones, the NFL Players Association, my attorneys, agents, advisors, family, friends and fans – but most importantly, my wife Janay. I made an inexcusable mistake and accept full responsibility for my actions. I am thankful that there was a proper appeals process in place to address this issue. I will continue working hard to improve myself and be the best husband, father and friend, while giving back to my community and helping others to learn from my mistakes.”
3:25pm: The NFL Players Association released a statement regarding the ruling:
“This decision is a victory for a disciplinary process that is fair and transparent. This union will always stand up and fight for the due process rights of our players. While we take no pleasure in seeing a decision that confirms what we have been saying about the Commissioner’s office acting arbitrarily, we hope that this will bring the NFL owners to the collective bargaining table to fix a broken process. It is clear that this decision should force the NFL to embrace neutral arbitration as part of a necessary due process in all cases. The players thank Judge Barbara Jones for her time and thoroughness in this matter.”
2:10pm: Former Ravens running back Ray Rice has won his appeal for reinstatement, tweets NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. The running back’s indefinite suspension has been overturned and he is now eligible to sign with any team. However, based on the rumblings we’ve heard over the past couple of months, that seems unlikely, at least for this season.
Following a grand jury indictment on third-degree aggravated assault, Rice was suspended for the first two games of the 2014 season. When videos were released showing Rice striking his then-fiance, the NFL indefinitely banned the running back. The appeal hearing took place earlier this month, with Rice’s lawyers arguing that the running back shouldn’t have been penalized twice for the same offense, especially considering the league’s new six-game domestic abuse policy (via a tweet from Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports).
The ruling certainly contradicts the punishment and subsequent comments by commissioner Roger Goodell in September. ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets that arbitrator and former U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones believed Rice did not lie to the league regarding the circumstances of the assault. While the league claimed that the TMZ video shed new light into the investigation, the judge decided that Rice “did not mislead the Commissioner” and that the league saw “no new facts” prior to handing out the second suspension (via USA Today’s Tom Pelissero on Twitter).
“In so holding, I find that the NFLPA carried its burden of showing that Rice did not mislead the Commissioner at the June 16th meeting, and therefore, that the imposition of a second suspension based on the same incident and the same known facts about the incident, was arbitrary,” Jones’ stated (via ESPN.com).
“The Commissioner needed to be fair and consistent in his imposition of discipline.
“Moreover, any failure on the part of the League to understand the level of violence was not due to Rice’s description of the event but to the inadequacy of words to convey the seriousness of domestic violence. That the League did not realize the severity of the conduct without a visual record also speaks to their admitted failure in the past to sanction this type of conduct more severely.”
The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin believes that’s “not a good look” for the commissioner’s office (via Twitter). Either way, the NFL won’t pursue additional punishment for Rice, as Andrew Brandt tweets that the league is accepting the ruling as “binding.”
Rice has an active grievance against the Ravens regarding the money he believes he’s still owed, according to Fox Sports’ Mike Garafolo (via Twitter). However, if the running back were to join another team, it wouldn’t have an impact on the Ravens cap, according to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. Rice counts for $4.75MM against the cap this season and $9.5MM next year.
Some in the league believe that Rice’s return is inevitable, but not necessarily this season. That includes former Ravens executive Phil Savage and former Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik (via Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun)…
“I think it’s going to be tough for him to get his first crack at it in 2014,” said Savage. “I would tend to think that there would be — for lack of a better term — a cooling off period for him to reprove himself. But we’re a country of second chances and I do think he’ll get another opportunity.”
“You have to be willing to understand that it’s going to be a PR hit for a little bit, but I think you reason that as bad as the video was, they do their time for what they’ve done wrong,” said Dominik. “He’s still, from everything I’ve heard or know, gotten support from his wife to play and they are still together. I would sit there and have a lot of conversations, talk to ownership and you go through it. But Ray Rice is a good football player. I would expect him back in the league, but it may not be until 2015.”
Furthermore, Volin tweets that an owner would be “slapping Goodell in the face” if they decided to add Rice for the stretch run.
Extra Points: Goodell, Vikings, Harvin, Dogra
In the wake of the Adrian Peterson decision, tensions between the NFL and the player’s union are high once again, writes Mark Maske of the Washington Post. Commissioner Roger Goodell exerted significant power in suspending Peterson for the season, singular power the the union was under the impression he would no longer be wielding on his own. According to Maske’s source, the two sides have no good will between them.
“I think it reflects a fundamental disagreement about the role of the commissioner’s office in the disciplinary process,” said Gabriel Feldman of the sports law program at Tulane University. “I think it’s a reflection of the tension that has existed. It’s not surprising. It would have been surprising if the Players Association had not sought so vigorously to have Peterson reinstated. To some extent, it is each side playing the role it’s supposed to play.”
Here are some other notes from around the NFL this Saturday evening:
- In Peterson’s absence, the Vikings will be forced to continue the season using a running back-by-committe approach, and that may be the plan going forward, writes Matt Vensel of the Minnesota Star-Tribune. He writes that the player taking carries for the Vikings next season could be any one of the players on the active roster, Peterson, or someone they take in the 2015 NFL Draft.
- The Jets‘ have seen a lot of improvement with their midseason acquisition of Percy Harvin, and are happy with how he has fit in so far, writes Brian Costello of the New York Post. They will have a tough decision to make at the end of the season on whether to keep him at his hefty price tag of $10MM, but Harvin hopes to remain with the team.
- Since Ben Dogra has been fired, CAA Sports has also terminated the contracts of a number of employees who worked closely with the embattled NFL agent, writes Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal. On behalf of Dogra, his attorney, Rusty Hardin, stated that he was unsure of any “supposed cause” for his firing and ensured that none of the agent’s clients had left (via Twitter). He also commented on Dogra’s future, saying he “hasn’t decided where he is going to land or whether he is going to start his own firm.” (via Twitter).
- Three of the top four quarterbacks selected in this past NFL Draft have seen significant game action this season, and Greg Gabriel of the National Football Post has compared their play to see who has played best and who has shown the most promise for the future. The answer to both questions so far point to Derek Carr, who has impressed with his decision-making and his quick release, according to Gabriel. Blake Bortles has struggled and Teddy Bridgewater has yet to be unleashed, while Johnny Manziel is the only one of the four to not receive any significant playing time this season.
Latest On Ray Rice
As part of Ray Rice‘s appeal hearing, Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome testified under oath Thursday that he heard Rice tell NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that the ex-Ravens running back hit his then-fiancée in a casino hotel elevator, reports ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr.
Thursday concluded Rice’s two-day appeal, which also included testimony from Goodell, Rice and and Rice’s wife, Janay. Additionally, the player’s union and the league submitted notes taken during the June 16 disciplinary hearing which left Rice suspended indefinitely for violating the personal conduct policy. The decision is now in the hands of U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones, who has asked for final briefs from both sides next week before she levies a ruling.
“Rice and the NFL Players Association contend the league’s indefinite suspension constitutes an enhanced punishment for the same violation and thus violates labor law,” writes Van Natta Jr. “The union also is arguing that the discipline of Rice by Goodell was inconsistent as it relates to the league’s conduct policy.”
Rice is seeking immediate reinstatement, which seems inconsequential given the PR firestorm sure to result from Rice signing with another team, though Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman tweeted a quote an AFC scout who said: “I don’t think any team will sign him. But then again, there’s always an idiot in the room.”
Van Natta Jr. says ESPN’s Outside the Lines has a pair of sources confirming Thursday’s news. The program also quoted four sources in September who said Rice had told Goodell he hit Janay. Goodell denies that claim, saying that Rice’s June 16 account of the events was “ambiguous.”
As for the testimonies from Rice and his wife, Van Natta Jr. says a gag order imposed by Jones prevented the release of details. However, sources say Newsome supported Rice’s previous explanation to Goodell.
Weighing in on the news, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio condemns the NFL by wondering:
“But does any of this matter? It was known that Rice had knocked out Janay Palmer in the elevator. Whether he used a closed fist, an open hand, an elbow, a forearm, or some other part of his body, he knocked . . . her . . . out.
“And if there were any ambiguity at all, the NFL should have gotten the video. It could have gotten the video. It failed to get the video.
“Regardless, the idea that the NFL would see any ambiguity at all in the information from Rice suggests either a lack of empathy for the victim of a knockout blow. Alternatively, it’s entirely possible that the NFL is simply feigning ignorance regarding what actually happened in order to support the knee-jerk second suspension, which came only hours after the video of the incident was published.”
Click here to read the NFLPA’s statement on the hearing.
Latest On Ray Rice Case
Yesterday, a judge ruled that commissioner Roger Goodell will be forced to testify at the Ray Rice hearing. The decision was not unexpected, but also not a given, and it should make things very interesting. Now, it sounds like the heat will really be turned up on the commissioner based on what we’re hearing tonight. The latest on the Ray Rice appeal..
- In addition to commissioner Goodell, Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome and team president Dick Cass will also be required to testify at the Rice hearing, tweets Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
- NFL nemeses Jeffrey Kessler and Peter Ginsberg will be questioning Goodell at the hearing, Florio writes. Ginsberg, who was retained directly by Rice, has handled several cases in recent years against the NFL, including the StarCaps case involing Pat Williams and Kevin Williams.
- Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and director of team security Darren Sanders won’t be among those called to testify by the judge in the case, tweets Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun.
- Ultimately, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith could decide to get in on the fun and question Goodell, Florio hears from a source. Smith, a practicing lawyer before becoming the NFLPA boss, routinely adds his own name to the roster of lawyers handling a given case which allows him the option to directly participate as an advocate.