This was the press conference that wouldn't end and probably shouldn't have started.
Roger Goodell would have been better served typing up his opening statement and posting it on the NFL's website than doing what he did Friday in New York, when he made his opening remarks -- which weren't terrible -- and then opening the floor to questions.
Problem: Goodell couldn't answer the questions. Not the hardest ones. He could answer the softballs, like this inane question from someone named Dan -- "Hi Roger, how are ya?" -- and this setup question from Sports Illustrated's Peter King, who put it on a tee for the NFL commissioner when he asked him, "Are all 32 owners behind you?"
Goodell, knowing an ESPN-worthy sound bite when he smells one, put on his best steely-eyed stare and said, "I have support of owners."
Film at 11.
Until then, we have this horrible press conference to digest -- this lame attempt by Goodell to get out front of a story that has left tire tracks all over his $2,500 suit. Goodell disappeared shortly after the second Ray Rice video emerged, the one that showed Rice actually punching his fiancee into unconsciousness and finally caused Goodell to give Rice a serious (and possibly lifetime) suspension.
For 10 days Goodell has been out of sight if not out of mind, the focus of the NFL's recent rash of domestic violence cases -- not because his league kept having it happen, but because his league kept showing it had no idea what to do next.
This press conference Friday was Goodell's chance to show that he now has a firm grasp on the problem, and the solution, but he punted. He said everything was up for discussion. He said the league is looking for consistency as to when and how hard it should punish players. He said every state has different laws, and that makes it difficult, and the question you asked underscores exactly how difficult this whole dilemma is.
This was Roger Goodell making like Bud Selig and shrugging helplessly. For damn near a half-hour.
What this wasn't? Roger Goodell making like Adam Silver and nailing the moment. Like Goodell, who has a topic everybody hates (domestic violence), Silver had an owner everyone hated (Donald Sterling of the Clippers) -- and while the legality of what he was about to do has been questioned, Silver made it clear on April 29 that he didn't care: Donald Sterling is banned from the league. The NBA is taking the team from him. Can the NBA even do that? Silver thought the NBA could, if only because he thought it was the right thing to do and damn it the NBA was going to do the right thing.
Goodell spent 45 minutes on Friday telling us that a hard-nosed approach on domestic violence is the right thing to do, but hell if he knows how the NFL will get it done. Hell if he knows how TMZ got its hands on the second Ray Rice video when the NFL couldn't. Hell if he knows what the 49ers should do with Ray McDonald, who was arrested on charges of felony domestic violence against his pregnant girlfriend, and who remains on the active roster.
Hell if he knows. Those were the answers Goodell kept giving to questions he knew were coming, questions he knew he couldn't answer:
Hell if he knows.
If this public appearance was meant to be persuasive, it was. I'm persuaded that Goodell should have stayed in hiding. I'm persuaded that Goodell should have posted a statement on Facebook, pressed the "like" button, and been done with it. Or, if he felt he absolutely had to make a public appearance, I'm persuaded Goodell should have stood before the microphones and cameras on Friday, made his somewhat agreeable opening statement, and then dropped the mic and gone home.
