NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed a number of league topics on Monday -- including the game's integrity in regard to legalized gambling, the current state of officiating, diversity initiatives and player health and safety -- during his news conference ahead of Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night.
With this season's Lombardi Trophy game taking place in Las Vegas, Goodell said protecting the game's integrity when it comes to legalized sports betting is the league's "No. 1 objective."
"The integrity of our game is critical. And so we spend a lot of time focusing on that, educating, making sure that all of our personnel are aware of our gambling policies, in this case or any other policy that can affect the integrity of our game," Goodell said. "So, ultimately, that's our primary job. This week coming in here, we wanted to make sure -- not just the two teams, but every other club would likely have representatives here -- we wanted to make sure they understood it, our league staff and everyone else, so that they understood exactly what our policies were here. They all understand the importance of it. We clarified our policy earlier this year, and it was to put the importance for our players betting on NFL games or inside information or anything that would negatively impact the integrity of our game is absolutely off limits."
Several players were suspended for violating the league's gambling policy over the course of the 2023 season. Goodell sent a memo to all 32 teams to reinforce the league's gambling policies ahead of Super Bowl week.
One of the other prominent topics of Goodell's one-hour session on Monday: NFL officiating, a subject that has been under a public audit for much of the 2023 season. Goodell recognized the level of scrutiny he's seen, but maintains league officials are doing "an extraordinary job" and that the NFL will always look for ways to improve.
"I think in the NFL, the level of scrutiny is at the highest I've ever seen it," Goodell said on Monday. "That's part of our popularity. I understand that. That's part of the technology. You all do such a great job that you see more than you could ever see in officiating. The game is faster. I think our officials do a great job. They are superior. But at the end of the day, no one's perfect. Whether it's all of us that watch the games or play the games, coach the games or the officials, we have to continue to try to get better. We have to work to use technology where we can to try to improve their performance. Let them use technology to make sure they get the right answer. I think they do an incredible job, but we're going to keep working to get better, ultimately."
Goodell later added that "consistency is the No. 1 thing you want in officiating." He also referenced the offsides call made in Kansas City's Week 14 loss to Buffalo as a cautionary tale when it comes to ref criticism.
"It's a very good example of the scrutiny and the position our officials are in," the commissioner said. "That was absolutely the right call. I don't think there's anybody in this room that would say it's not the right call. The official made that call correctly. There was criticism of that that was unfounded. If they had not called that play, think of the criticism that would've come from Buffalo. So even when the official gets it right, there's criticism. While we're always going to try to get better, I think people have to understand to some extent how these officials are put in that position."
Goodell was encouraged by the results of the 2024 hiring cycle, which saw four of eight head-coach openings go to minority candidates, but maintained that the work is far from done.
"We still have a lot of work to do. We are not satisfied where we are," Goodell said. "We think diversity is very good for us as a league. It's made us better. It gives opportunities to talented people. I think the hiring cycle was obviously encouraging from a head-coaching standpoint. As you point out, we don't look at this just on the coaching level or offensive coordinators, we look at this across the board. We look at this from coaching to ownership to presidents to general managers. And we've seen extraordinary progress in all of that. And that's the effort that we've had with our clubs. I give our clubs tremendous credit. The process they went through in the hiring cycle for head coaches and general managers this year was very thorough, very professional. I think the delay by one week gave teams a chance to do that. I don't think people think about our hiring cycle -- every one of those teams is competing against somebody else and another team. Sometimes you get in that rush. I don't think people felt that. I think people took their time. They understood the candidates. They did an excellent job of interviewing them. We had panels, we had education, I think the accelerator program, all the things that were done by the clubs over the last several years paid dividends. And we'll continue that."
Goodell also discussed continued efforts to improve health and safety. The NFL prioritized adjusting kickoff rules to make the play safer as it went into the 2023 season. The league saw a significant drop in the number of regular-season games missed to injury this season, but concussion numbers essentially remained stable (219 total, compared to 213 in 2022), which is below the recent high of 281 a few seasons ago. Goodell hopes to find ways to improve those numbers while also keeping the kickoff in the game.
"For me, I thought this rule was necessary for the one year because we need to innovate," Goodell said. "We need to work with our coaches and our competition committee and those across the league to find a way to keep the kickoff in the game. It's an exciting play. It's important for us. The same for punts. But when you see a higher injury rate for that play, you can't ignore that. And we haven't yet found that solution. I think we've proven over the last several years, you can make the game safer and more exciting at the same time. And that's our objective here. I'm confident we'll get to that. It's going to take a little work. This is a one-year rule, so I hope that will be a major focus this spring."
NFL playing surfaces, specifically the differences between grass and artificial-turf fields, have also become a hotly debated topic when it comes to player safety. Goodell hopes to explore a new innovation as a potential option, while asserting that finding consistency for players on a week-to-week basis is a crucial element of keeping them safe.
"This has been a major focus with the Players Association, and we have jointly worked with experts to try to study this question," Goodell said. "It's not always just grass or synthetic. We think hybrid is something to really explore. That's actually what they use in international soccer, is a hybrid type of format. Additionally, I think we've got to look at different circumstances, right? You play in a dome for four and half months, that's pretty hard to grow grass. You can sometimes take it in and out. You can find a way of trying to replace that. But we want to try to get the best possible field surfaces, and that is something that varies from market to market, climate to climate. One of the the things that we think is very important and the studies that we're doing, is consistency. And when I say consistency, it's not just on the entire playing surface, but it's consistency of what players are playing on during the week leading up to the game. What they're practicing on and what they play on. That consistency is really important, according to our engineers and our experts. So we're looking at that with the Players Association and hope we can find better solutions and continue that focus."
When asked about reports of the 49ers being displeased with their practice field for this week in Las Vegas, Goodell said that the UNLV practice facility was approved unanimously.
"That work is being done every single day," he said. "We had 23 experts out there. We had the union out there. All of them think that's a very playable surface. It's softer than what they have practiced on, but that happens. It's well within all of our testing standards. It's something that we think all our experts, as well as neutral field inspectors, have all said unanimously that it's a playable field."
Lastly, Goodell made an exciting announcement for the 2024 season: The Philadelphia Eagles are the designated team for the league's first-ever game in South America. Philly's contest in São Paulo, Brazil, will take place on Friday of Week 1, with the Eagles playing an opponent that will be revealed before the full 2024 regular-season schedule is released in the spring.
