NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had planned to attend various events this week with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill. At least two of the three sessions have been scrapped.
Via Scott Wong of The Hill, Tuesday’s meeting with Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives was canceled, due to a “last-minute scheduling conflict.” Goodell had been invited to “discuss qualities of leadership.” Per the report, a separate meeting with Republican chiefs of staff also was canceled.
It’s unclear whether Monday’s event with the Majority Whip Steve Scalise’s vote-counting team occurred as planned.
The advocacy group known as UltraViolet, which flew banners advocating for Goodell’s ouster at multiple NFL games last season, suggests that the cancellation resulted not from a scheduling conflict but pressure placed on Congress to distance itself from Goodell.
“This is a great victory for American women,” UltraViolet co-founder Shaunna Thomas said in a release. “We are encouraged to see that the GOP’s planned leadership lecture with known domestic-violence excuser Roger Goodell was cancelled. No one, and especially not Congress, should be taking leadership lessons from a man who swept 55 cases of domestic violence under the rug at the NFL. Commissioner Goodell is at his worst on domestic violence when no one is watching -- a lesson we’d prefer the GOP leadership in the House not take to heart.”
Thomas previously had called the meetings “a huge insult to women,” and she had urged the events to be canceled.