Every year leading up to the Super Bowl, reporters from across the country get to ask Roger Goodell a flurry of questions during the NFL commissioner’s annual press conference. This year, which was invite only and held just before Opening Night, Goodell again addressed a variety of topics related to the league.
Goodell talked about the positive impact Taylor Swift has had on the NFL, stemming from the Grammy award-winning artist’s relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Goodell also announced that the Philadelphia Eagles will be the home team for the NFL’s first-ever game in Brazil in Week 1 of the 2025 season.
While those were two of the major highlights from the presser, Goodell did touch on an array of topics, which we’ll highlight below.
The future of the kickoff
As the game has developed over the last few decades, the kickoff has become more of a symbolic play rather than a true meaningful action in the NFL. However, Goodell, who did oversee a change this season to allow for fair catches on kickoffs, does not want to see the play go extinct.
“I thought this rule was necessary for the one year because we need to innovate,” Goodell said, via Pro Football Talk. “To find a way to keep the kickoff in the game. It’s an exciting play, it’s important for us, the same as punts, but when you see a higher injury rate for that play, you can’t ignore that.”
Legalized sports betting
The NFL has come full circle with its relationship with gambling as it’s now set to host the Super Bowl in the betting capital of the world in Las Vegas. While legalized sports betting is growing rapidly across the country and has been welcomed by the league, Goodell did emphasize that keeping the game on the level is of the utmost importance. The NFL also sent out a memo to all 32 teams this week to reinforce the gambling policies leading into the Super Bowl.
“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, via NFL.com. “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.”
Officiating
As is the case nearly every year, the NFL and its officials were under heavy scrutiny this season and were a major topic of conversation amongst fans and talking heads. While some viral moments painted the officials in a negative light — like the Taylor Decker incident on New Year’s Eve — Goodell was complimentary of how the referees have been able to officiate games in 2023.
“I think in the NFL, the level of scrutiny is at the highest I’ve ever seen it,” Goodell said, via NFL.com. “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 preached that consistency was the No. 1 objective for officials, while also commending them for enduring criticism following the Chiefs’ Week 14 loss to the Bills where they correctly flagged wideout Kadarius Toney for lining up offsides, which erased what would’ve been a key touchdown.
“It’s a very good example of the scrutiny and the position our officials are in,” Goodell 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.”
2024 hiring cycle
Goodell was pleased that four of the eight head-coaching openings during the 2024 hiring cycle went to minority candidates, but also acknowledged that there is still room to grow.
“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.”
Playing surfaces
The argument between playing on grass vs. turf seemed to have risen to more prominence this year. Of course, player safety is the top priority for the league and Goodell is aiming for consistency on a week-to-week basis, but also wants to look for innovative options to solve the problem.
“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 a 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 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.”
On Monday, CBS Sports lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported that the 49ers were not pleased with their playing surface as they practice for Super Bowl LVIII at UNLV. Goodell noted that the playing surface was unanimously approved.
“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.”
Super Bowl won’t be a streaming-only event
As streaming becomes increasingly more popular and the main way some folks watch television, it stands to wonder if the NFL will fully submerge into streaming at some point. Of course, streaming is already a fixture in the league (as you can watch Super Bowl LVIII on Paramount+), but it has mostly come alongside a linear television network. However, the NFL did have a streaming exclusive playoff game this year on NBC’s Peacock. So, will the Super Bowl ever become a streaming-only event?
“Certainly not in my time,” said Goodell when asked about that possibility. “I still believe one of the secrets of our success is we are really committed to broadcast television. Ninety percent of our games are on broadcast and free over-the-air TV.”