parking lot for a signature they can be proud to keep. thank you for being part of the "the real story." thank you to larry o'connor for joining me today. i hope yu, come back. >> i'd love to. >> here's shep. >> derek jeter, good job, grandchild. this is it. sit down, get popcorn, maybe bring over a little soda. the nfl commissioner, roger goodell, is set to speak at any moment. we'll have live, every single word, without commercial interruption. his first comments since a series of domestic violence incidents. he faced a lot of anger over how the league has handled third. now the commissioner answers his critics. the reach of the islamic state militants with news of the plot to decapitate random people on the streets in australia, we talk to a former fbi official about whether the terrorists can carry out attacks overseas, and

the islamic state is note only terror group to worry about. there's another particular organization that may pose a greater threat to all of us here at home. it's a crazy news friday. let's get to it: now on texas news channel, live look at the hilton a hotel to a block away. the nfl commissioner, roger goodell, is about to make his first public statement in more than a week. he is scheduled to take questions from reporters, and there are lots of them are there. the league is facing a ton of pressure over domestic violence incidents involving not one but several players. here. this was the beginning for all of us. now former ravens ray rice, knocked out his then-fiancee in an elevator and the league

suspended him indefinitely. then there's adrian peterson who admits he beat his four-year-old son with a tree branch. investigators say he left cuts on the boy's sides and hands and lower back, even his scrotum. peterson says he was disciplining the boy, and he missed and the switch wrapped around the child's leg and hit his private parts and he was sorry. the vikings b.ed him, brought him back, then benched him again. then there's the panthers. that's a former rebel. the panthers benchedk greg hary while he appeals a conviction for assaultingsing his ex-girlfriend. choking her and threatening to kill her. then there's the 49ers letting ray mcdonald play despite his arrest and allegations he hurt his pregnant fiancee. and then there's the arizona cardinals running back, jonathan dwyer, cuted of head-butting his wife and breaking her nose after

she refused to have sex with him and also supposedly threw a shoe at their 18-month-old son, hitting him in the stomach. jonathan dwyer faces charges including assault, and the cards have benched him. keep in mind, these are just some of the big names involved in the apparent domestic violence incidents. critics say the league is not taking the issue seriously enough. that officials have been too slow to act and that roger goodell, according to many, should go. there's a lot to wait for. i'm watching on the wall as a shaky camera reminds us at three minutes past 3:00, this man's job, he said from day one to protect the shield. the most valuable brand in this nation. and it's chinked. >> he has not been doing enough to do that. the pressure has been building on roger goodell all week. it's ten days now since he talked and dave the only interview to cbs, in the meantime we have not heard

anything from the commissioner on the adrian peterson scandal, the jonathan dwyer scandal, any issues afflicting the nfl. in fact we have had a higher profile from somebody like ray rice, who actually start this with the assault on his wife. he turn up at his old high school to watch a game. we have seen nothing of roger goodell and it's not just the outcry from nfl insiders. it's also sponsors, anheuser-busch, and pepsi, both expressing their concern about the lack of action that the nfl has taken, and we just heard, shep, from the pentagon, that the defense secretary himself, chuck hagel, is now asking questions about the military's involvement with the nfl. so, a huge amount of pressure on goodell. >> there are so many. look at all the sponsors. radisson was the first one. the vikings used to have the radisson logo behind the coach. now it's gone, pepsi, bud light, and now the military the white house. >> it's really -- has been building to a crescendo here,

and no doubt that is why roger goodell has finally chosen to talk to the media. he also put out a memo, by the way, yesterday in the wake of these banners you have seen flight over nfl stadiums from women's groups, reading, goodell must go. now he is putting forward some new initiatives on domestic violence. they're going to partner, the nfl, with the national domestic violence hotline and the national sexual violence resource center. give them money to help with their program, and educational programs within the nfl. goodell in his memo to the teamm nfl staff said, quote, these are by no means final steps. we will continue to work with experts to expand and develop long-term programs that raise awareness, educate, and prevent domestic violence, and sexual assault, both within the nfl and in our society in general. so he is announcing these new mesh initiatives but in the minds of a lot of people, it's too little too late.

>> a lot of this is blah blah blah and in the world knows it. this about money. he made $43 million last year. god bless him. the league's individual teams since heu came on in 2006, the value of almost all those properties has doubled since he was the commissioner. the lucrative television contract. this is a massive business and he has the support of every owner. >> that's why you have not seen any clamor from the owners for him to go. he has made them a fortune, and as you say, he makes a fortune himself. 44 million last year. his term runs until 2019. so, it would be very unlikely he would walk away from this voluntarily. it would have to be the owners voting him out and there's absolutely no noise they want that. >> when paul tagliabue was the commissioner of the nfl, roger goodell was his deputy, and the deputy position was created specifically for roger goodell. i don't know if he has a deputy. >> i'm not aware whether he has

a deputy or not. the person people are talking about if he were to step aside or be forced out, former secretary of said state condi rice who said her dream job was nfl commissioner. wouldn't be a bad person to step in if is in all falls apart for roger goodell, begin she is a woman, given her stellar record in public service. >> one of the surprising things to me -- jim gray is with us, right? jim gray, fox sportscaster, news contrd program. jim, surprising thing to me has been our the on ticks have played against the leak. roger goodell came out from the early going of his tenure and said we are not going to tolerate bad -- and yet he knew this happened, but even before the video, and gave a two-game sponge, and then since then, i think most analysts would say they have just bungled the pr >> it's been awful, and it's certainly -- you couldn't foresee this coming.

roger, it has been said by everybody, has been too stern. been much too direct, been too tonight on the guy. looked at by the players as a guy that hasn't had any personal feelings toward them, and has gone around in many instances the union and just enforce eddies minimum. but this has been a massive failure of judgment. go back and look at all of these cases, particularly ray rice. the prosecutor, the two-people who wrote up the report that night, it was a double misdemeanor. then you have the>ñ judge and te d.a., and they saw this like it was shoplifting crime. so before it even got to the -- to roger goodell -- where was the ownership and general manager and the -- >> the kings were in the counting house, counting out their money. >> exactly. it hasn't been good, and now roger has to come out right now and he has to protect the public confidence in the game. this is the most intense criticism the national football league has faced since the

players' strike, and then go back to the jfk assassination. they've seen nothing like this in 50 years. >> the nfl will tell you, at least they would have a few weeks ago, that the most important audience for the nfl right now is women. it's their place with the greatest amount of growth, the percentage has gone up and up. they changed entertainment to attract women, and now you have men hitting on women and children, and the league has to do something to keep the women coming, otherwise it can't grow, not domestically. >> you just can't sweep this under the rug and act like it's not happening. then you look at the statistics. there have been 85 arrests since the year 2000. of national football league players on domestic violence. if you take into account there's been between 27 and 30,000 players who have come through, we're talking about .3 of one percent. of the population of the nfl players who are involved, so it's much less than society as a whole. >> you're on point, and another one i wanted to make is, jim,

have a hard time not taking the news home. sometimes i go to sleep thinking about and it wake up, distraught -- imagine if what your job was, was to be violent all day? you're paid to entertain threw violence. it's violence on the practice field, on the television, gametime, violence all the time. and then you're supposed to immediately turn that violence off. add occasional performance enhancing drug and i don't know. seems like a lot to ask. >> well, it's impossible. what these guy does on the field, it's the pursuit of excellence in many ways and also is controlled violence, and sometimes it's not controlled. so to expect these guys -- it's abnormal to play in the national football league. these guys are taking their lives in their hands in every play. they're trying to maim the other guys, trying to knock them out. they're trying to do everything they can to keep their job. and then you think they can just turn that off just like this when you walk of off the field? shouldn't be a surprise that these guys get involved in these things bus that is what they do

for a living and they can't just turn it off. >> prosecutors often look at timeline of events to keep things in focus, and in context. the timeline of events here shows the most marked change when the sponsors started pulling out. look at the sponsors who said something to the nfl. i mentioned an -- anheuser-busch. and bud light, the goliath, has been asking questions, pepsico the same, knock -- nike, mcdonald's, visa, the military, the president's press secretary has spoken out. when you start pulling the money back, which is what was just happening, it would appear that that's when you start getting action. >> that seems to be what has happened, and roger goodell has hired several females to look at sexual abuse and domestic violence and handle social matters but the sponsors had a lot to say. this is a $10 billion a year industry, and roger goodell said

by the year 2020 he expects those grow to $27 billion. you cannot have this going on. children being abused, domestic violence. even if it's smaller percentage, then what is going on in society, people look up to national football league players. they're role models. unlike what charles barkley says, whether they like it for not people want to be like them. so there's a higher standard. they must be held to not getting involved in these episodes. regardless if it's one or six a year, it's too many. people are wearing around the jerseys of adrian peterson. the best running back in the national football league. we do not expect to see his son bloodied and scared and terrified. you can't have it. >> not if you're returning a big business like this and if you're society you can't support such a thing. jonathan, for me, i can't remember a time when the nfl was

seen in such a negative light. not even during the players strike. the league as a whole, to be taking this kind of kris simple -- never seen anything like it. >> it's extraordinary. you read so much by people steeped in the nfl. sports writers have done nothing but follow the nfl. and they're all talking about, is this a cross-roads for the nfl? are we at a tipping point? it is extraordinary to see, when you think of the grip that it has on american sports culture, but now something could really be changing if they do not grip on this problem. >> we were talking about the deputy commissioner of the nfl, an sent from today's nfl. it exists very visibly elsewhere.v! bill daily serves as that capacity in nhl. mark tatum in the nba, replacing adam silver, and at mlb, rob manford has that.

there's no deputy director of the nfl. roger goodell was one but there is one -- not one right now. the press conference was to have begun eight minutes ago. if it starts during the break, we'll break out of thejack get to you live. honey, you did it! baby laughs! wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, shopping online is as easy as it gets. carpenters and even piano tuners were just as simple? thanks to angie's list, now it is. start shopping online from a list of top-rated providers. visit angieslist.com today.

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>> happy a take your questions -- >> roger goodell, listen. >> makes a positivenq differenc. unfortunately, over the past several weeks, we have seen all too much of the nfl doing wrong. that starts with me. i said this before, back on

august 28th, and i say it again now, i got it wrong in the handling of the ray rice matter. and i'm sorry for that. i got it wrong on a number of levels. from the process that i led, to the decisions i reached. but now i will get it right and do whatever is necessary to accomplish that. first, i don't expect anyone just to take my word. last week, i asked former fbi director robert mueller to conduct an independent investigation to answer the questions raised about our process in reviewing ray rice's conduct. i pledge that director mueller will have full cooperation and access. we all look forward to his report and findings.

i promise you that any shortcomings he finds in how we dealt with the situation will lead to swift action. the same mistakes can never be repeated. we will do whatever ituf is necessary to ensure that we are thorough in our review process, and that our conclusions are reliable. we will get our house in order first. second, and most importantly, these incidents demonstrate that we can use the nfl to help create change. not only in our league but in society, with respect to domestic violence and sexual assault. we are taking a number of steps. on august 28th, i said that the entire nfl would receive comprehensive information and

resources and support systems for victims on domestic violence and sexual assault. we will re-examine enhanced and improve all of our current programs, and then we'll do more. earlier today, each nfl club, and all of league office locations, received information about advocacy and support organizations in their communities. in addition, our teams and league staff, everyone, will participate in education sessions starting in the next month, followed by training programs. these programs are being developed by a top group of experts. some of them were announced earlier in the week. we will continue to identify and add expertise to our team. and we will ask the inflame players association to help us

develop and delivers the programs in the most effective way. domestic violence and sexual assault exists everywhere, in every community, economic class, racial and ethnic group, it affects all of us. these are problems we are committed to addressing. but we cannot solve them by ourselves. law enforcement, the criminal justice system, social service organizations, and families are the cornerstones to addressing this problem. for our part, we can add, and we will do more, to begin we have entered into long-term partnership with two leading national organizations.

the national domestic violence hotline, and the national sexual violence resource center. the hotline received an 84% increase in their call volume just last week. they did not have the resourcesd to reach even half of those calls. they need our help. and we are providing it. fourth, we strongly, strongly, condemn and will punish behavior that is totally unacceptable. domestic violence, including child abuse, sexual assault, irresponsibles ownership or handling of firearms, the illegal use of alcohol or drugs, these activities must be condemned and stopped. through education, and discipline.

our standards, and the consequences of falling short, must be clear, consistent, and current. they must be implemented through procedures that are fair and transparent. this is a central issue today. i'm here now because our rules, policies and procedures on personal conduct failed to ensure that this high standard is met. but i want too make it clear. these are very complex issues. our country has a legal system that everyone needs to respect. when there is evidence of misconduct by anyone in the nfl, we need to carefully consider when to act and on what evidence. everyone deserves a fair process.

you know i feel passionately that working in the nfl in any capacity, is a privilege. something we must earn every day and must never take for granted. the vast majority of players, coaches, owners, and employees in the nfl, stand tall. not only for their role in the game, but for what they do in their communities. to get all this right, we will bring together our players and their union representatives, coaches, owners, and outside experts, who can help us set the right standards and identify the right procedures. i have discussed these challenges with the players association executive director, demorris smith. he shares my view that domestic violence and sexual assault have no place in the++ nfl. he and i will meet next week to

bring together experts to help us establish and live up to the standards our fans deserve and that we set for ourselves. will be asking these experts to examine all current nfl policies related to employee and player conduct and discipline. they will address how to balance due process rights for those accused, with the need to hold our personnel to the highest standards. they should also consider the current system for determining violations, including my role in the process. there will be changes to our personal conduct policy. i know this because we will make it happen. say it again. we will implement new conduct policies. they will have a set of clear

and transparent rules for league and club personnel, owners and players. my goal is to complete this by the super bowl. football and the nfl have always changed and improved. uá"tááue changes the game committee. it reviews and updates the rules that govern the game on the field. through this process of evaluation, reform, we keep the game competitive, entertaining, fair, and most importantly, do everything we can to protect our players on the field from injury. we go to enormous lengths to make sure players, coaches, officials, fans, our broadcast partners, fully understand our playing rules and how they're enforced. that must now be our motto when

it comes to personal conduct. so, like the comp -- competition committee, i'm establishing a conduct committee to review rules in the months and years to come, and ensure we're always living with the best practices. there is no reason we cannot be as transparent and as effective on these issues as we are with the game on the field. i believe in accountability. i understand the challenges before me, and i will be held accountable for meeting them. every day, so many of our players, coaches and staffs, are doing tremendous things in their communities. i couldn't be more proud of how they're using the opportunity to help make a positive differenceq today, i ask everyone that is

part of the nfl to join me in making positive and significant changes going forward. i'll take your questions. >> peter. >> peter alexander from nbc news. appreciate your time. if any of these victims had been someone you loved, would you be satisfied with the way the league has handled this crisis and what would you say to them? >> i'm not satisfied with the way we handled it from the get-go. is a told you, and this statement indicates, i made a mistake. i'm not satisfied with the process that we went through. i'm not satisfied with the conclusions. and that is why we came out last month, on august 28th, and said we're going to make changes to our policies. we made changes to our discipline. we acknowledged the mistake, my mistake. and we said, we're going to do better going forward. we have a set of very complex issues we have to deal with.

that's no excuse. what we need to do is get some experts to help us, how do we do this better? how do we restructure our personal conduct policy, and expect the kind of behaviors we expect, and to make sure we educate, train, do everything possible to hit that mark, for all of us, and when we don't, there will have to be consequences for that. so, i'm not satisfied with what we did limit myself down. lit everybody else down. for that i'm sorry, as i mentioned earlier. but that's what we're going to correct. >> richard.fkl >> roger you have had pretty extreme unilateral power in deciding discipline but you have gotten it wrong in a few cases and that tends to happen when there's no checks and balances. how willing are you to begin if some of that power and do you think that would be the right thing for you to do? >> rachel, as i said in my statement, everything is on the

table. we're going to make sure that we look at every aspect of the process of how we gather information, to make a decision, how we make that decision, and then the appeals process. and all of that is on the table and all of that is important information that we want outside experts to give us some perspective on and see if there's a better tie do it. we blew there and is we needlw . we can't continue to operate like this. >> also you mentioned on tv last week you buys guys checked and tried to get the ray rice video and any information. the atlantic city prosecutor's office in an open records check says they don't have any electronic communication from the nfl asking for that documentation or video custom give us the trail how you did the investigation so that people can know what you puppet into it -- put into it in. >> certainly. our security department works with law enforcement. they're fully cooperative. we gather almost entirely all of our information through law

enforcement, and that is something else we're going look at, rachael. is that the right process? should all of our information be gathered simply through law enforcement? we understand and respect what they go through and the job they have to do, and they're certain restrictions they may be under -- [inaudible question] >> we asked for it on several occasions according to our security department. we asked for it on several occasions over the spring. all the way -- from february through june. so i'm confident our people did that. we'll have to discuss directly with them. >> commissioner -- >> peter frocks fox sports, commissioner. i was in minnesota on sunday and i saw a mother with her two kids, both wearing adrian peterson jerseys, and she said i'm conflicted about this. i don't know what i should do. he is our favorite play. a similar situation in baltimore with ray rice.

what's your message to the mother with the two kids with peterson jerseys and doesn't know what to tell them? >> the first thing is that we're like the broader society. in several ways. we're like a microcosm of society. we have a lot of young men, a lot of individuals that play or coach or executives, other individuals in the league that they make mistakes. and that is something that, while i'm disappointed in what adrian peterson was involved with, we want to see the facts. i think what we see so far is tragic. it's hard to look at. if have two daughters who are 13. it's very difficult to see. and i think what we have to do is allow those facts tobut the i think, for all of us as parents is that our children are going to make mistakes. they need to learn how to take responsibility and be accountable for those mistakes.

and deal with those. and that's something that i and my wife, jane, we work very hard on with our kids. when you make a mistake, be accountable for it. >> commissioner, sherrill from cbs news. in 2012, after bounty-gate, you suspended sean peytonor a year. you said ignorance is not an excuse. a lot of people think you're not holding yourself to that same standard. have you considered resigning at any point throughout this? >> i have not. i'm focused on doing my job, and doing the bestcw to my ability. i understand when people are critical of your performance, but we have a lot of work to do. that's my focus. we have been busy in the last couple of weeks. we have results to show for it. we talked about some of them in my statement. i'm proud of the opportunity that we have to try to make a difference here, and do the right thing. we have acknowledged we need to change what we're doing.

now we have to get to, what are those changes going to be? >> roger, been a lot of high-profile, high-level calls for your resignation. what would you say to these people? why do you feel like you should be able to continue in this stroll. >> because i acknowledged my mistake. all 28 -- august 28th i said we didn't get this right. we made changes, are making changes. we have a lot more work to be done. but we're moving in a very important direction. by getting expertise to say, how do we do this better? we're all as a society having difficulty dealing with this. the nfl has to takeka care of is house, and that's my focus. how do we do this better at the nfl, and make sure that we keep everything on the table. we're going to make sure that we look at every aspect, from the

collection of evidence to how we go through the process, to who makes the determination, what the appeal process is, and we'll make those changes i believe will be beneficial to the league long-term in addition think we can make some changes, and i think there will be positive in the domestic violence and sexual assault areas, child abuse areas. those are things we think we can make a big difference on but we better get our house in order first. >> mike, fog sports 1. you mentioned due process in your statement. right now there's a lot of inconsistency. ray mcdonaldn@ is playing, greg hardy is not. adrian peter sewn is not. jonathan dui is -- dwyer is not. some guys on the exemption list, some on the nonfootball illness list. it's a bit of a slippery slope. how do you plan to handle that and do you have a list to put a these guys on? >> you're highlighting exactly the point, that we need to

change our policies and our procedures and we need to get some help in trying to identify how to do that. we have state laws that are different from state to state, and even locally. we need to make sure that we have looked at when the nfl should be involved in the investigative process. we need to know how much reliance we should have on the law enforcement information. so, you're highlighting exactly the issue. we aren't -- we do not have a clear and consistent policy that will allow to us deal with the different issues arising, and that is why we talked last month about, we need to change our policies, and we need to go get some experts to help us deal with some of those issues that are very comeplex, about due process, and making sure that we allow our employees and -- the opportunity to be able to defend themselves but also make sure we're maintaining the integrity

of the league. we have an obligation there. and we're prepared to do that. and we are going to do that. >> roger, in your interview with cbs news almost two weeks ago, you said ray rice was ambiguous in his description of what happened in the elevator and that is why you went back and suspended him further after the video came out. what exactly did ray rice tell you happened in the elevator and how did, what you thought in your mind happened, in the elevator, differ from the video? >> judy, a couple things. first off, as i said, we got new information from the first tomorrow i met with him to my initial discipline, which three weeks later i acknowledged was not sufficient. that it was clear there was an act of domestic., violence. but it was inconsistent with the way he described what happened. when we had that new information, we had the ability

to say, we're going to interject and we're going to take additional action. and that's what we did. so there was new information that developed because we had not seen that second tape that became public roughly ten days or so ago, and that was not consistent with what he said. >> what did he saginaw. >> the one issue -- what did he say? >> the issue is this is knew matter of appeal. so without prejudging, i have to respect the appeal process. >> you're talking about transparency. why not say what he said. >> i'm telling you right now, it's inconsistent with what he told us, what we saw on the video when it came out roughly ten days ago but we have an appeals process. that information will come out at some point in time. >> -- [inaudible question]

-- more specific than sending out multiple punishments for the same crime. given the fact what he did is nat what the -- >> peter, i may disagree. that's something the appeal has to determine. we have not seen all of the papers on appeal. it's a fact there's an appeal and they may be able to raise several issues in the context of that appeal. that's a decision they have to make. >> commissioner, commissioner to your right. andrew. you mentioned the two women's groups the nfl will be working with. can you tell us how you'll be assisting them, and to follow that up, if the 32 openerred had vote whether or not you should keep your job, whoa what would you think the results would be? >> that's a hypothetical i can't deal with. we had 20 owners in the office this week for prescheduled committee meetings in preparation for our league meeting next month, and we're just focusing on getting our work done, and are so they. so we had productive meetings with them.

your first part of your question was about the different organizations. what we saw in our contact is that because of the attention this issue was brought by the ray rice matter, and potentially other issues coming to light, this is something that became a need for what our experts tell us was happening in the community. what is happening is that there's clear there's a need for people toj seek help, and all communities, and that's why they saw a spike in this. what we want to be able to do is to be able to help provide assistance to them and that was something we would do. and we said to them, we want to be involved. we want to help. and we will provide resources and assistance to be able to make sure you can get the personnel there to answer those questions. and we're pleased to be able to do that. we should be providing that

assistance. >> dan, espn. the ap report about the video being sent to your office cites a voice mail where someone confirmed receipt of it. with that in mind, how do you explain that, the denial they had the video. >> that's exactly why, as i mentioned in my statement, that we hired robert mueller this longest serving director of the fbi, to make sure that that individual, roberter muler and his staff, go through and they find out as many facts as they possibly can and report. y that. all that information will be something that director mueller will be dealing with. >> you have been clear through your tenure that you would be hard on people who committed crimes. why do you think the domestic violence crimes, such as ray rice, give you such a difficult time and weren't treated maybe as harshly as others were. >> as i said to you early on, we made a mistake in letting our

standards fall below where shy be. we should have had our personal conduct policy reviewed more frequently to make the changes necessary to deal with the issues. we last changed that policy on a broad perspective in 2007. it's had a positive impact on overall number of criminal activities. but what we need to do is good back and say, okay, we're in a different age now, with different issues and different challenges. let's go back and figure out how to do that again, and do it in a consistent and fair way. and that's what we're doing with the outside expert. >> was there something about domestic violence crimes that made it more difficult for you to adjudicate them? >> well, i think the policy itself was, again, not up to standards. the standard discipline for that was way below what it should be.

the first video was horrifying, and we went through the process and we disciplined consistent with that policy. that wasn't sufficient, as i said. that was a mistake. so we had to good back and fix our policy. in the short term and say, this isn't sufficient discipline. we met with a variety of experts on this. we came to a conclusion of what the discipline would be. at least as a standard. with aggravating circumstances that could allowc= us some flexibility. and also, that we would banish on a second offense. so, we took a very strong position saying, this is not acceptable. now we have to get back into the more difficult work, which is how do we understand when the nfl should get involved in a particular situation, with law enforcement, with the criminal justice system, and how do we make sure that our policies will give us the flexibility to deal from state laws that vary from

state to state, and try to give us that consistency so that it is more difficult and -- is more simple to make those decisions on a fair and consistent basis. >> peter king. do you still believe that to the best of your knowledge, that no one in the nfl office has seen the ray rice video before it surfaced own tmz? >> yes. >> secondly, do you believe that right now you have the full nfl backing you in what you're doing right now? >> peter, i believe i have the support of the owners. that has been clear to me. they obviously expect us to do a better job, and as i said to several, i don't like to let down anybody, peter. myself, i hold myself to the highest possible standards. so when i make a mistake or don't get something right, it bothers me more than anybody.

i think the owners have seen that in me. i think they know we have always tried to do the right thing. mistakes happen, and i'm sorry for that. and we're going to get this right. that what anyway they know. >> barry from ap. you announced a new personal conduct committee. what will your role be with that and are you reducing your role or power in these cases by having that committee. >> the personal conduct committee will have to develop it further and who might serve on it, whether we'll have outside expertise that will join that, is really about what are the standards, the conduct we want in the nfl. how do we want to represent ourselves? what is important to us as a league? and we want to make sure that we're holding ourself to that standard, and maybe exceeding. we want to exceed every single standard we set. and that is what i expect this conduct committee to do.

similar to the competition committee. how do we improve everything we're doing? evaluate it on a regular basis. it's our personal conduct policy needs to be changed and updated, we need to do that, and i expect that the conduct committee would oversee that. >> dan -- >> hi, roger. how are you? >> i'm good, thank you. >> a number of corporate sponsors put out disapproving statements in the last week. how many difficult conversations have you had with your business partners? thing does not improve they would pull out, and did you specifically talk to anheuser busch, which put out a particularly disapproving comment? >> dan, it starts with what i just mentioned before, that i disappointed myself. i disappointed the nfl. i disappointed our fans. our partners. and we need to do better. and i made that clear on

august 28th, to our ownership. i made it clear since. i made it clear to sponsors directly. that we are going to do better in this area. there are things that we need to cleanup our house and make sure we get right, and we will. and we will make a difference in this area. now we have to deliver. >> close to losing a sponsor? >> pardon me. >> were you close to losing a sponsor? >> you have to speak to the sponsors about that. i don't believe so. >> morgan -- >> hi, just to piggyback off of that question, what are your comment on the fact fat procter & gamble pulled its patter inship plug today. >> we have been in contact with our sponsors. several of them have promotions in the market/x place that are inconsistent with what is going on here. and we understand that. and what we said is, we're going to clean up our house, we're going to get this straight, and we're going to make a

difference, and they want to see us make that difference, and that is up to us to deliver on. they want to see us achieve that. they're not looking for talk. they want to see action. that's what we're looking for and why we have been focused of the last couple of weeks so hard on getting it right do the things we said we were going to do and get it right. accomplish do the hard work. this is not a quick fix. this is something we have to work hard at. and we will. >> roger, you talk about establishing a personal conduct committee, and you said the goal was to be completed by the super bowl. what to be completed by the super bowl isn't this -- aren't these issues constantly evolving? >> yes. >> personal issues. >> yes. that's why we want to get to work immediately. the conduct committee is not the committee i expect to make the changes in the personal conduct policy. what we have to do, andue i spoe to dee about this, is reach out

for experts in the area. so maybe in law enforcement. some may be in the criminal justice system. some may be expert inside domestic violence or sexual assault or child abuse area. and bring all of those experts and their views on this of how we can improve the policy. everything from how we collect information, to when the nfl is involved with law enforcement. or do we have a separate investigation? those are all difficult issues to ensure they have due process, anybody is involved, and make sure we're maintaining the6w integrity of the nfl. >> the idea is to have the committee in place by the super bowl or start making -- >> i expect i will have the committee in place by the super bowl, yes. >> commissioner, aaron from abc. thank you for doing this. wonder if you personally have ever been involved in an abuse situation in any capacity, and then secondly, i wondered if you anticipate any personnel changes, if not change in

commissioner, how can you bring meaningful change and credible change and cheng the culture and change the attitude without a change in personnel? >> the first answer to your question is, i have not. the second answer to your question is, were making personnel changes. we announced several of them over the last week. we have more to come. we're looking to see how do we strengthen our team in this area? how do we bring the right voices to the table to make changes, not only to what we do but more broadly, and so i expect personnel changes will continue. that's part of how we get better. that's part of how we evolve and learn from our mistakes, and do a better job going forward. >> mr. goodell, commissioner -- >> sorry, frank -- >> two things 'when you made the original suspension of two games, were any women advising you, and second, in your personal conduct policy that you're revising, are you willing to put that into the on the fire

pointing out exactly what we're concerned about, is that we didn't have the right voices at the table. we need to get better expertise. some of you know we announced earlier this week that lisa freel is joining us, as a former chief of sex crimes in downtown new york. i think she is going to be able to provide a very valuable perspective for us in understanding the criminal justice system, particularly in this area, and those are the types of people we want to have part of our organization and0 part of our decisionmaking process. >> mr. goodell -- >> out, out, out! what's going on? ow. what are you doing? what are you doing? what are you doing? don't take me into an elevator. please. please. >> sorry about that. >> i had nothing to do with that.

>> mr. goodell, miguel marquez from cnn. there's a lot of confusion from fans out there about the mistake you say you've made. you talk about your investigative department at the nfl. regardless of what mr. rice said on june 16th. regardless of the second videotape. on the initial summons it clearly says that mr. rice struck janay palmer with his hand, rendering her unconscious. why did it take that to put this to right. >> it was. was clear that a domestic violence violation had occurred. that was clear to us. and it was horrifying. and that is why we took the step we did. we did the two game suspension and a fine of $500,000. it was not sufficient. and that is because our policies, as i indicated

earlier, had fallen behind where we need them to be. we needed to get those policies in a position where the standard for that kind of violation has to be much higher, and that's why three weeks later we raised that standard, and we said, this is not going to be acceptable behavior. and when it occurs, it's a minimum six-game or the standard of six-game, with aggravating circumstances that we can consider and have additional penalties if necessary. >> commissioner, you mentioned robert mueller's investigation as key to solving these issues oomph animal going to excuse the integrity of the ex-director of the fbi. it's a given he is a man of integrity. but the law femur hi works for and will help hem carry out the investigation is a law firm with extremely close ties to the nfl. you paid that law firm recently to help you negotiate some television deals, the president of the ravens, will be key in this whole investigation, worked at that law firm for more than 30 years.

why hire someone with even the appearance of impropriety and how do you expect this to affect everything? >> rachel, i n respectly disagr. you are now questioning the integrity of the director of the fbi. yes, that firm has represented news the past and have also been on the other side of litigation against in the nfl. so this is a highly respected individual that served as director of the nib, longest serving director in the history of that position,. his credentials are unquestioned. >> part of the idea is to restore public trust so even if he does a flawless investigation, isn't there an element here of your leaving the door open for doubt? >> rachel, unfortunately we live in a world where there's a lot of litigation. there are a lot of law firms. a lot of people have had maybe some interaction with us in the past.

robert muller has not. law firms have. we're hiring robert muler and his ability to do an independent investigation, recording to owners, and i am confident that will be the case. >> mr. commissioner -- >> he interviewed yet? robert mueller interviewed you -- [inaudible] >> that's something that robert mueller has to announce. we're not disclosing or involving -- he is running an independent investigation and will meet with anybody he wishes, whenever he wishes. he will get full cooperation from me or anybody necessary the building. i'm making any comment -- not making any comments on the investigation. he has full access. >> commissioner, commissioner, adam with tmz. i have to go back into the video and your curiosity to see the video. you suspended ray rice after our video. why didn't you have the curiosity to go see the -- go to the casino yourself?

>> well, two things. we suspended ray rice originally disclosed back in february. when the second video came out last week, that's when we increased our discipline because that was inconsistent with the information we had. it was new information. one of the things i said in my statement, and i've said repeatedly here, is that is part of what we want to do with all of our experts. outside, internal, is try to figure out how should we investigate these issues? in the past we have been almost completely reliant on working with law enforcement and cooperating with them. we do not want to interfere with a criminal investigation. in particular here when you're dealing with a casino, in new jersey, they're even more restrictions because it's overseen by the attorney general. so we have to be very cautious and not interfere with the criminal investigation, but we'll evaluate that should we do

more to get that information? i would have loved to have soon that tape should we do more to get that information in the future? that's a question -- >> mr. commissioner, we found out by one phone call. you guys have a whole legal department. can you explain that? we found out by just one phone call. >> can't explain how you got the information. only you can do that. >> two questions on the -- right here, commissioner, two questions on the ray rice situation. first, do you regret having ray and janay rice in the same room together when you met with them? and secondly, have you decided who will be hearing the appeal for ray rice in your office? >> i have not on the8+second pat of your question. i'll be making that decision shortly. someone else will be hearing that case. on your first part, yes, it's part of the learning we have had. throughout this, is that there are certain proper ways of having those kinds of

discussions when couples are going through domestic violence issues. and we have learned that. we have learned that from our experts, who say we shouldn't have them in the same room or we should give them the opportunity to speak separately also. and that is something that we have learned from this and will correct going forward. >> commissioner, you can't speck out about individuals that have cases not resolved. what do you say to the one nfl, greg hardy, who has been convicted for assaulting his girlfriend. >> we're disappointed where he is. we think what he did and was as alleged in the court,. record -- he was convicted and then what happens when he appeals that is that it's wiped out until he goes to a jury trial. so, again, you're highlighting -- can i finish? you're highlighting exactly the issue we're concerned about,

which is when do we engage? there was a conviction, then removed until the jury trial, and should we let that go all the way through? we were pleased with -- okay -- >> in the middle here -- >> ask a quick question. my hand has been up for a while. it's obvious when you look on at the field, a lot of these players -- it's a diverse cloud crowd. a lot of the players are african-american. can you justify as not having an african-american as part of the group of women you hired to into look assault and domestic violence? >> that is now true. we have internal experts working on this that are people of color, that are women and men, and they have been involved in this process from the beginning. in addition, as i said, in my statement, is that we will continually evaluate, do we need

other resources? do we need other individuals? do we neat other organizations to help -- >> talk about that organization -- [inaudible] was there any stipulation in announcing three women in -- >> well, those three women are advising us as well as we have full-time staff, including an african-american woman who has great experience in this area(p and has been involved for several years with the n.l. and -- with the nfl and on the r"áa level. we're good. >> okay. >> there you go. if you're in the middle of a crisis, your task is to, a., take the blame. stop the bleeding. move on. change the narrative.

roger goodell just said, i got it wrong four times. i made a mistake. i let myself down. i let the league down. i'm sorry, and then he is very ambiguous about what the changes will be but is ready to move on. the question is, is anyone else? and shepard, there might have been a reason why goodell did what he did today, and it might have to do with money. welcome everybody, i'm neil cavuto. and what might have changed the tone and the posture of goodell was simple money. sponsors who were thinking about bolting or reassisting -- reassessing their affiliation with the nfl. if that is sew, and we're getting whisperings that a more than a few of them were uncomfortable and charles paine is not surprised. he says the nfl is moving on but me thinks there might have