Goodell Addresses Steve Tisch, Paris Concerns, NFL Officiating

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday that the league is “comfortable” with Giants executive Steve Tisch participating in NFL-related activities as the team chooses.

Tisch, who is listed as the team’s executive vice president and chairman of the board, was on hand for the two-day meeting of the league’s team owners at a Manhattan hotel that concluded Wednesday, as Front Office Sports first reported Tuesday.

That’s after the league and Goodell said during Super Bowl week in February that the NFL would look into Tisch’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in 2019.

“Everything we’ve looked at, we understand,” Goodell said at a news conference Wednesday. “I think we’re comfortable with him participating as the Giants suggest.”

Goodell was asked whether the NFL’s review of Tisch is ongoing.

“I think always we’ll look to see if there’s any new information,” he said. “We’ll look at it and we’ll evaluate that.”

Documents released by the Department of Justice in February showed that Tisch was in regular contact with Epstein. Email exchanges in the released documents showed that Epstein connected Tisch with numerous women.

The NFL informed teams in March that Tisch and his siblings, Jonathan Tisch and Laurie Tisch, were transferring their remaining ownership shares into trusts for their children.

Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, Steve Tisch’s niece, said at last month’s FOS Asset Class event that those transfers were “done.” She is Laurie Tisch’s daughter and is a strategic advisor to the Tisch ownership group of the Giants.

Giants owner John Mara also attended this week’s meeting in New York.

So, too, did 49ers owner Jed York. His six-game suspension by the NFL for violating the personal conduct policy, imposed after York was arrested in Ohio in August in a prostitution-related case and pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors, ended Tuesday. The 49ers played their sixth game of the season Monday night.

“I think we went through a full process, obviously, to understand the facts, understand the issues, looked at it under the context of our personal conduct policy, which … applies to owners, commissioners, everybody else, players,” Goodell said Wednesday. “And it’s something that we feel strongly about. I think we need to represent ourselves and our organizations properly. We saw a violation and we dealt with it from a discipline standpoint. That’s concluded now and so he’ll be back representing the 49ers.”

Goodell Headed to Paris

Goodell said he was leaving soon for Paris for the Saints-Steelers game there Sunday. The NFL  has said it is proceeding with the game as scheduled despite the recent civil unrest and violence in France.

“I think we’ll deal with that,” Goodell said. “We’re involved at the highest levels, both in France on a global basis [and] with our officials here in the United States, including I had a conversation with the Secretary of State a couple days ago. So we’re continuing to make sure we have all the available information, make sure the appropriate steps are being made. We’re guests in the country. We’re going to be good guests. We’re going to do our thing. And I’m confident they’re going to do theirs. So we look forward to it. I’m leaving shortly to go [there] myself.”

The NFL will have a heightened security presence around the game, league executive Peter O’Reilly said Tuesday.

“Very high is my comfort level,” Goodell said Wednesday. “Again, we’ve made all the preparations. We’ve been in touch with the appropriate authorities. Protests are not unusual in France, as you know. And that’s something that we will be aware of and make sure that the appropriate arrangements are made.”

No Jay-Z Confirmation

Goodell did not confirm a report by Puck News that Jay-Z will be the Super Bowl halftime performer.

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation organizes the halftime show as part of its partnership with the NFL.

“I am not aware of a leak,” Goodell said. “I’ve been in the committee meetings. So I’m not sure it’s a leak. We haven’t announced anything. Until we do, we won’t make any comment on that.”

Deeper Look at Officiating

As some observers complain about the number of penalty flags being thrown during games this season, Goodell said he does not draw a correlation between the frequency of penalties and the quality of the officiating.

“Number of fouls can’t be an evaluation of officiating, necessarily, because we don’t commit the fouls, right?” Goodell said. “The officials are there to call the fouls. So I think when you evaluate officiating, you don’t look at it just in total number of fouls. I think that’s an inappropriate way to approach it. … So we look more deeply at: Are they properly called?”