The NFL wants to get its house in order. Until that happens, it apparently wants no one to inspect the premises.
As Commissioner Roger Goodell hinted earlier this week when saying that Judge Barbara S. Jones will decide whether he testifies at the Ray Rice appeal hearing, the NFL wants to shield Goodell from testifying in the Ray Rice appeal hearing.
According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the NFL has declined the NFLPA’s request that Goodell testify in the appeal hearing.
It’s not a shock. The boss of any business never wants to testify. Especially in an adversarial setting, where a lawyer will be trying to lay traps and to twist words. Where there’s meaningful followup when the answer is evasive or incomplete. Where there’s someone in charge who can insist that the boss answer the question, even if the boss doesn’t want to.
But it’s a horrible look for the NFL to play that card in this specific case. At a time when the league supposedly hopes to inject transparency into its disciplinary procedures, the league can’t try to hide Goodell from the effort to get to the truth about what Rice said regarding the events that occurred inside that Atlantic City elevator on February 15.
The NFL suspended Rice a second time because the NFL essentially contends Rice lied during the initial disciplinary process. So he ultimately determined that he lied? Who heard the things that Rice was saying? Who bears the primary accountability for the investigation that created this mess?
The goal of the league’s lawyers may be to try to place limits on the testimony, restricting the questioning to what Ray Rice said and didn’t say — and protecting Rice from questions about what the NFL knew and when the NFL knew it. Still, Goodell should be willing to answer and any all questions about what happened, if Goodell is serious about taking accountability for the ensuing debacle.
So much of this entire episode, including the appeal hearing. The NFL pulled the pin on this grenade by suspending Rice indefinitely, based on the notion that Rice didn’t tell the truth. Goodell is a key witness to the events, both as it relates to what Rice told the NFL and what the NFL did to find out the truth when the NFL initially suspended Rice for two games.
The reality is that the NFL didn’t have to suspend Rice. He’s radioactive, at least for the rest of the year. The smarter play for the league in hindsight would have been to let the two-game suspension stand, and move on. By reopening the case, the league now has to deal with the obvious consequences. Those consequences include Goodell testifying at the appeal hearing.