In recent years, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has made headlines during his Super Bowl Week press conference. It would appear that the league is doing what it can to prevent that from continuing to happen.
As noted by Daniel Kaplan for Front Office Sports, Goodell’s annual presser will take place on Monday, the second consecutive year it will be held that day of the week. Previously, the commish would meet with members of the media on Wednesdays. Before that, he used to answer their questions about the state of the NFL on Fridays, just two days before the big game.
Just like last year, this year’s presser will also require an extra media credential to attend. Last year’s event was attended by 125 reporters. Kaplan says that this year’s numbers should be similar.
Putting the press conference at the beginning of the week and taking a more critical eye on who gets to attend (and ask questions) is likely to help Goodell avoid becoming the story, as he has in years past. The most obvious example would be in 2022 and 2023, when then-NFL.com reporter Jim Trotter questioned the commissioner about the league’s commitment to diversity in leadership, including within NFL Media. In both instances, Goodell stammered his way through vague answers and seemed dismissive of Trotter’s concerns (Trotter’s contract was not renewed soon after the 2023 Super Bowl).
This is what Roger Goodell came up with after having 80 seconds to think through his response to @JimTrotter_NFL‘s question about diversity issues at NFL Media (which Trotter also asked him about last year) pic.twitter.com/EQlbrsI0hg
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 8, 2023
There was also the time in 2016 when Goodell seemed to say that sitting on the couch watching football was just as risky as playing in the NFL, dismissing concerns about CTE and other injuries.
Goodell will certainly not be hurting for topics to discuss on Monday. Among them will undoubtedly be how close the league is to adding an 18th regular-season game, whether they’ll make more games exclusive to streaming services, Rooney Rule compliance concerns, and further international games.
The good news for Goodell and the NFL is that Trotter retired from the profession earlier this year, though something tells us he wouldn’t have gotten a credential anyway.
