At the NFL’s annual winter meeting, league commissioner Roger Goodell defended the way the league handles domestic violence investigations and said the league will not be paying for video evidence while investigating.
Those comments come less than two weeks after a video of star running back Kareem Hunt assaulting a woman was obtained by TMZ, leading to widespread criticism and Hunt being released by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Despite that mishap – which involved the NFL and its $8.16 billion in revenue failing to obtain the same video that TMZ was able to get – Goodell called the NFL’s approach to handling domestic violence “extraordinary.”
“We take this seriously,” Goodell said. “As a league, I think we’ve responded very quickly. I think that example is being on the commissioner exempt list. They were off the field within an hour.”
He also explained the league won’t pay for videos because “that’s not appropriate for a league organization to do that” and said the NFL refuses to obtain evidence by “corrupting people or trying to find a way to bribe them into giving us video.”
Todd Jones, the NFL’s special counsel for conduct, also defended the NFL’s video evidence policy.
“To become mercenary and pay for videos opens up a Pandora’s box of all kinds of opportunities and things that may come to us from not just surveillance video in public places or surveillance video in residences, but you’re talking about the world of social media and everybody on a smartphone,” Jones said.
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