National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was at Buffalo Bills training camp in Rochester today to meet with Bills owner Ralph Wilson and New York State Senator Chuck Schumer. The Commissioner discussed a number of topics including the Bills in Toronto this season, Marshawn Lynch’s offseason traffic incident and Brett Favre’s “unretirement” situation. Here’s the transcript:

On status of small market teams and conversation with the Senator:
The nature of the conversation was to find out how the Bills are doing and fortunately that’s good news. The effort here to regionalize the team further into southern Ontario and into …read more

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell delivered his annual “State of the NFL” address (aka the Super Bowl press conference) today and was questioned on a wide variety of subjects from NFL International to concussions, steroids and player conduct (among others). The first and most prolific topic of conversation was not only the New England Patriots “Spygate” scandal from earlier this season, but also Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter’s public opinion of it from earlier in the day. Yes, earlier in the day. Good timing, Arlen. It was Senator Spector’s opinion that the NFL should not …read more

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL
Green Bay Packers WR Koren Robinson has petitioned for reinstatement following a one-year suspension and is eligible to return to the NFL next week — Wednesday, October 17 to be exact. And I hope Commissioner Goodell grants that request.
Koren has had his share of alcohol-related problems since he entered the league back in 2001, but after talking with him a couple years ago as a Minnesota Viking, I felt certain he was on the right track. He admitted to having a problem with alcohol and was doing everything in his power to …read more

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had a busy day today. I’ll get right to the specifics. For the New England Patriots‘ illegal videotaping incident I initially mentioned a couple days ago, Commissioner Goodell fined head coach Bill Belichick half a million dollars (the league max under their Constitution and By-Laws); he fined the team $250,000; and depending on where the Pats finish the season, they will lose a draft pick or multiple draft picks. (If they make the playoffs, they lose a first round pick. Otherwise they will lose second and third round picks.)
I …read more

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL
Here’s the transcript from Commissioner Goodell’s press conference at the annual NFL Rookie Symposium in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
How the Symposium has lasted this long and the concern about players in their first year.
COMMISSIONER: The focus for us is how do we make these guys better men. What can we do to help prepare them for the decisions they will have to make as NFL players? It’s a big transition from college, so I think we’re providing some tools for them. The big focus for us is how do we expand on this, …read more

I was watching Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO the other night and there was a segment on post-concussion syndrome in the NFL (Episode 122, Story 1, Head On) that caught my attention. The preview at HBO.com read:
In the violent world of the NFL, helmet-crushing hits that sometimes cause concussions are commonplace. Research has shown that multiple concussions can cause permanent brain injuries, possibly leading to debilitating memory loss, confusion, dementia and even suicidal depression. A host of former players and one unlikely advocate from the world of pro wrestling have turned to the NFL for answers, but …read more

The annual NFL Spring Meeting will be held at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee tomorrow. The agenda for the one-day business meeting includes a vote on the awarding of Super Bowl XLV in 2011. The finalists are Arizona, Indianapolis and North Texas. I’m pulling for Indy because I fell in love with the city during my annual travels there for the NFL Scouting Combine. Super Bowls are awarded by a vote of the ownership. A decision and announcement on the 2011 Super Bowl is expected at the end of the morning session on Tuesday (approximately 1 PM Nashville …read more

I feel like I could start a blog entitled “CSI:NFL” with all the negative media the National Football League has received recently and the efforts with which Commissioner Goodell has taken to solve the problems. But sometimes a negative story has a positive ending, as will hopefully be the case with Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson who said today that he’s ready to accept whatever punishment the Commissioner gives him for his recent off-field problems that included a two-month stint in jail. Tank had a 90-minute meeting with the Commissioner earlier this week and told him he wanted to …read more

It will be at least one more week before Commissioner Goodell makes a final decision on Pacman Jones’ fate for the 2007 season. The Commissioner will review the briefs that Pacman’s lawyers are still finalizing — those documents that sum up the legal points and testimony from last Friday’s appeal hearing — and then decide whether to ease Pacman’s season-long NFL suspension. I can tell you what’s going to happen, though. As hard as the media may try to create some more drama in this case, there is no suspense. The punishment will remain the same or you can throw …read more

As scheduled, Commissioner Roger Goodell met with NFL bad boys Pacman Jones and Chris Henry today. There was really no news to report from the proceedings — no punishments were announced — but in its wake, news of a Player Advisory Committee surfaced. Commissioner Goodell and the NFL Players Association recently decided to form this committee (it all started back at the Combine) to meet regularly and pore over the issues that concern each side — league officials on one side and the players on the other. Members will most likely include Indianapolis C Jeff Saturday, Philadelphia LB Takeo Spikes, …read more