If the statement that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made yesterday is true, expect to see Michael Vick back in the NFL this season or next.

The NFL Annual Meeting concluded, but not before Commissioner Goodell made it clear what Michael would have to do to return to the playing field:
“I’m not going to make a judgment until I know all the facts on Michael Vick. I think it’s clear he’s paid a price, but to a large extent he’s going to have to demonstrate to the larger community — not just to the NFL community and to me — that …read more

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants a longer regular season. And he’s ready to propose a 17 or 18 game schedule to team owners in May that could take effect as soon as 2011. Of course, there are several obstacles to hurdle, like a new collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union. But, the Commissioner discussed the possibility this week at the NFL Annual Meeting:
“It’s possible that we could vote in May, but we want to have core discussions on this. Anytime you have change, there is some reluctance. But it’s clear we don’t need four …read more

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast
The NFL announced its 2009 Kickoff Weekend primetime television schedule today — including a Monday night “AFL 50th” doubleheader — and the Thanksgiving Day national TV tripleheader.
In a tradition that began in 2004, the Super Bowl champion annually hosts the NFL Thursday night season kickoff the following year. This September 10 at 8:30 PM ET on NBC, the Super Bowl XLIII champion Pittsburgh Steelers will host the AFC South champion Tennessee Titans, who had an NFL-best 13-3 record last season. The Sunday night primetime game (8:30 PM ET) on NBC will feature a division …read more

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell held his Annual Meeting presser today. Here is the complete transcript of the wide variety of topics and his answers:

Reviving proposal on reseeding playoffs
RG: Well, I don’t know if it’s reviving it. The focus that I said to the Competition Committee is: what are the alternatives that we have to make sure that every game we play is as competitive as possible? And that we give our teams incentive to win. That’s what we’ve been focused on. The reseeding is something that we’ve talked about for several years, as …read more

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL
From their Annual Meeting in Palm Beach, FL, the NFL announced today its 2008 Kickoff Weekend national primetime television schedule, including a Monday night doubleheader. It’s always exciting to watch the schedule piece itself together and this is where it begins.
In a tradition that began in 2004, the Super Bowl champion annually hosts the NFL Thursday night season kickoff the following year. This September 4 at 7:00 PM ET on NBC, the Super Bowl XLII champion New York Giants will host their NFC East-rival Washington Redskins and their new head coach Jim Zorn. …read more

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL
At the NFL’s Annual Meeting today, it was announced that a total of 32 compensatory choices in the 2008 NFL Draft have been awarded to 15 teams. Under terms of the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, a team losing more or better compensatory free agents than it acquires in a year is eligible to receive compensatory draft picks. The number of picks a team receives equals the net loss of compensatory free agents up to a maximum of four. The 32 compensatory choices announced by the NFL today will supplement the 220 choices in …read more

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL
The National Football League will hold its annual meeting next week (March 30-April 3) in Palm Beach, FL. I took part in a national conference call preview with Rich McKay this afternoon. Rich is the president of the Atlanta Falcons and co-chair of the NFL’s Competition Committee. Here are some of the proposals on the table and my thoughts on each:

Most of the proposals were submitted by the aforementioned Competition Committee, but this one was brought to light by the Kansas City Chiefs. It deals with the issue of hair not being allowed …read more

It’s kind of like being sent to the principal’s office. Two of the NFL’s most troubled players are on their way to NYC to meet with NFL Commish Roger Goodell. Both Tennessee Titans CB Pacman Jones and Cincinnati Bengals WR Chris Henry have appointments April 3 and punishments will be handed down within 10 days of those meetings. While Commissioner Goodell’s new, stronger player conduct policy has not been formulated, he received input from the teams at the league meetings that concluded today and hopes to have a plan in place before the Draft.

On the first day of the NFL’s Annual Meetings, news of a player conduct policy basked in the headlines. But some other important matters were discussed including an expanded program of revenue sharing designed to help lower-revenue clubs. It’s pretty difficult to understand and you might not care by the time you’re done reading this, but here goes.
The program requires that a team must be spending 65% or more of its revenues on player costs before it qualifies for the separate pool of $430 million that is being made available, retroactive to 2006. A franchise also must have gate revenues …read more

As the NFL’s Annual Meetings began today, Commissioner Roger Goodell said there would be no new player conduct policy before the end of the week But he did say that one could be expected before the Draft April 28-29. He met with the media and said: “It’s a complicated issue and there are no simple answers. We want to find out what is working well with the clubs and what is not working, get a set of best practices so they can implement them on a local basis. We’re expecting discipline will be stepped up.” Commissioner Goodell said he spoke …read more