The Chicago Bears have taken heat in recent days regarding the signing of Ray McDonald, who was released this week after another domestic violence allegation.
On Wednesday, Bears chairman George McCaskey addressed the situation and was asked whether he regretted authorizing the signing.
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"I've asked myself that question a lot," he said, via the Chicago Tribune's transcript. "What more could I have done? Is there somebody else that we could have consulted with? Should I have taken more time to make a decision? I don't know. We thought we had a good structure, a good support system and we thought we had the safeguards in place in case something like this happened."
McCaskey took ownership of the decision to sign McDonald, who has been accused of domestic violence multiple times in the past year.
"This was our decision. My decision, ultimately," he said, noting that he didn't need to discuss cutting the lineman with general manager Ryan Pace after the most recent incident.
The chairman was also asked whether he regretted not contacting McDonald's previous accusers prior to signing the free agent.
"I've thought about that a lot too," he said. "Not just before signing him but since. One of my concerns was the bias that anybody has in that situation. An alleged victim wants to make sure that the charges are filed while the alleged perpetrator is doing everything he can to make sure charges aren't filed. So that was part of it. But a larger concern to me is I didn't want to interfere with any criminal investigation or with any league investigation by talking to the child's mother."
McCaskey is on NFL's Conduct Committee and suggested that penalizing teams signing players who are subsequently arrested could be something discussed in the future.
"I haven't heard any discussion about that, either on the committee or among the membership," he said. "It might be something that would be worth a discussion. I don't know if there is any consensus on that issue at all."
McCaskey noted that domestic violence is a crucial societal issue the NFL is trying to deal with.
"Domestic violence is a vexing social problem," he said. "The NFL has had some high-profile cases, including this one. And the NFL, because it's a leader in society, is called upon to take action. Which we are doing. We're not going to do it by ourselves. But I think we have an opportunity to make an impact."
