3 Big Topics From Super Bowl Week: Belichick, Tisch, 18th Game

Every Super Bowl week is heavily influenced and colored by the news that breaks in the week or two leading up to it. 

In the week before sports media descended on the Bay Area for Super Bowl LX, two major news stories broke: ESPN reported that Bill Belichick, who boasts eight Super Bowl rings, did not get elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot; and the U.S. government released millions of new documents related to the radioactive disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, with Giants co-owner Steve Tisch appearing in the emails discussing dates with women Epstein arranged for him.

Both of those questions came up in commissioner Roger Goodell’s much-examined annual opening press conference Monday. As did the third major topic of discussion, a repeat from last year: the NFL’s interest in adding an 18th regular-season game to the schedule. While some frame it as inevitable, most players don’t sound so aligned.

Here’s what we heard in some of the 80 interviews we conducted on our set at Radio Row.

What Goodell Said

Steve Tisch, who co-owns the Giants with John Mara, appears to have asked Jeffrey Epstein to arrange dates with women for him. In emails with Epstein from 2013, Tisch referred to women as “my present” and “my surprise,” and asked Epstein whether one woman was a “working girl.”

In a statement sent to media from the Giants, Tisch said, “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments. I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”

Goodell was asked about it promptly at his Super Bowl week press conference. 

“We will look at all the facts,” Goodell said. “We’ll look at the context of those and try to understand that. We’ll look at how that falls under the policy. I think we’ll take one step at a time.” In response to a second reporter pressing him on whether the league will investigate, Goodell made clear it is not yet doing so: “Listen, we’ll continue to follow any of the facts that come up and determine if we open an investigation based on those facts.”

Asked about Belichick not getting into the Hall of Fame, Goodell said, “Listen, I’m not even sure whether it’s true.” But by Thursday night, NFL Honors arrived and proved the rumors true: Belichick and Kraft both did not get in. “The Pro Football Hall of Fame is not in any way controlled by the NFL; we have no say in the voting process,” Goodell said. He added, “Bill Belichick’s record goes without saying. Same with the Patriots and Robert Kraft, who is also a candidate. … I believe they will be Hall of Famers.”

Belichick, Kraft Miss HOF on First Shot

Many of the responses about Belichick missing the Hall of Fame centered on the voting process, beyond reasons specific to Belichick. Coach Mike Vrabel, who played eight seasons for Belichick in New England, said Monday night in response to a question from Front Office Sports, “I’m confident Bill will get in. I don’t know the process; I know that everybody’s talking about the process. And however the vote needs to go, I know Bill is a Hall of Fame coach.”

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, best known as a talking head on SiriusXM and ESPN, told FOS, “The system is stupid. You can’t have three ex-players last year on the ballot be up against two guys who are contributors, and you only can vote for three of them. And a lot of the guys are gonna vote for the players because it’s their last crack at it, and they’re gonna go push the Belichicks and the Krafts down a year or two, which isn’t fair, but that’s what they’re gonna do. … And let’s be honest, Belichick and Kraft are Hall of Famers; we all know this. Put him in the freakin’ Hall of Fame and don’t delay it.”

Russo added: “Stop making it secretive. This is not world politics, O.K.? Tell me who you voted for. This is sports. I mean, the idea that these writers, it’s a secret ballot, you’re taking yourself way too seriously.”

ESPN college football and NFL announcer Kirk Herbstreit also cited the process: “I don’t know all that goes into it. I know the optics of it. I don’t know the reasoning behind why he was left out. He’s the best to ever do it. And when someone’s the best to ever do it, I think it’s a kind of a no-brainer, whether it’s Kraft as an owner or Belichick as a head coach. If you’re punishing him for Spygate or whatever it might be, then are you going to vote him in the next time? That doesn’t make sense to me. If that’s his punishment, then why wouldn’t it be like Pete Rose, like it’s a lifetime punishment? I don’t understand, if that’s the reason.”

Jameis Winston, current Giants quarterback and media personality on the side, also chimed in on the Belichick result. “We know that Coach Belichick is a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” he told FOS. “One of my great friends is Terrell Owens, and I believe, personally, he should have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. I don’t think a lot of people stood up for him as much as they did for Coach Belichick. But it’s a no-brainer that Coach Belichick deserves to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. … It’s not a good look on those voters for leaving him out.”

Rob Gronkowski, who played for Belichick, told FOS, “Coach Belichick needs to be in the Hall of Fame, and it needed to be first ballot. Now there’s no such thing as a first-ballot Hall of Fame coach. No other coach ever in history should go first ballot. There’s a guy out there, Andy Reid, but he can’t go first ballot now because Coach Belichick wasn’t first ballot.”

Brian Hoyer, the longtime backup quarterback to Brady on the Patriots, chimed in: “Travesty. I mean, whoever didn’t vote for those guys should turn in their ability to vote. You can’t tell the story of the NFL without Bill Belichick … and when I look at R.K.K., not only the success in building the organization, but what he’s done for the sport … it’s absolute personal vendettas being held.”

Will the NFL Take Action on Tisch?

Stephen A. Smith stopped by the FOS set for an extensive conversation. When asked for his take on Tisch and the Epstein emails, he said, “When you read those emails, which I have, and you see that he’s joking with this sexual predator that was Jeffrey Epstein. … Now, it was wise of him, through the Giants, to come out with a statement highlighting that these were women, not girls. He made sure to make that point. That was wise, but it still doesn’t absolve him because that’s assuming you’re believed. And why would anybody just automatically believe you if you were associated with Jeffrey Epstein on that level? Knowing the kind of heinous, despicable things that he was involved in. … In the same breath, that doesn’t mean that commissioner Roger Goodell was wrong when he said, let’s let the facts come out.”

“It’s a very bad look for the Giants,” said Chris Russo on the Tisch revelations. “The Mara family is very conservative, prideful. … I think it’s very embarrassing for the Giants, but … I don’t think anything is going to be done here. … And remember, [Jim] Irsay, you had issues with him. Kraft had the issue down in Florida. I don’t think the NFL—you can make an argument that it should, but—I don’t think the NFL will do anything.”

And Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk and NBC said it will come down to whether Tisch’s fellow owners feel they are forced to act. “The question is how motivated will the league be to do something. And so much of this is driven by PR. We were looking at the personal conduct policy, there’s a catch-all provision at the bottom that says basically anything that calls into question or undermines the integrity of the NFL could get you in trouble. When you consider that these emails, even though there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing, they’re kind of skeevy and pervy and objectifying women in a way that makes you say, my God. It’s not that far from the emails that got Jon Gruden pushed out of the Raiders. It’s not that far. Gruden crossed a line that Tisch didn’t. You look at this and you say, is this really the kind of behavior that we want NFL owners to be engaged in? But they would have to be motivated to do something, and I don’t think they are. I think this is more, ‘Let’s keep our heads low, let’s keep our mouths shut, let’s weather the storm, let’s hope there’s no more of these.’”

How Players Feel About 18 Games

The NFL went from 16 to 17 regular-season games in 2021, and the possibility of an 18th game was already being discussed and dissected at Super Bowl week last year. Fox NFL analyst Greg Olsen told FOS last year it’s “inevitable.”

In his press conference Monday, Goodell said an 18th game is “not a given.” But Patriots owner Kraft made it sound quite different in a Boston sports radio interview just before Super Bowl week: “Every team will go to 18 [regular-season games] and two [preseason games] and eliminate one of the preseason games, and every team every year will play one game overseas.”

At the NFL Players Association’s own press conference Tuesday, NFLPA interim executive director David White said an 18th game “is not casual for us. It’s a very serious issue. It’s something that comes out of negotiation … as it stands right now, players have been very clear: they don’t have any appetite for it.”

On Radio Row, FOS asked multiple players for their take on another game and the possible impact on health and safety. The majority of them, from George Pickens and Patrick Surtain II to Trey McBride and Kirk Cousins, were not excited about the prospect. 

Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. told FOS, “I’m not a huge fan of that. It’s hard enough now to get through a full season, and then you add that extra game … as of right now, that’s not something I see players really wanting to do.” 

Falcons running back Bijan Robinson struck a different tone. “For me, it’s more football, so I love it. I don’t know about the guys, though. They want to help their bodies, and I’m all for that as well. So whatever they decide, that’s what we gotta do.”