The 408-page transcript of Commissioner Roger Goodell’s deposition in the litigation aimed at forcing insurance carriers to foot the bill for the concussion settlement contains several revelations. One of which is that ample preparation goes into the Commissioner’s annual Super Bowl press conference, with talking points crafted and practice questions posed and effort expended to anticipate the topics that will be addressed, so that the Commissioner will always have a good answer ready.
The project becomes less daunting this year, with the annual press conference (which had been a Friday staple for years) moved from Wednesday to Monday. Throw in the invitation-only approach (i.e., it’s no longer good enough to have a media credential for the week), and it makes for a far more predictable and manageable experience — especially with the muckrakers and rabble rousers not allowed in.
In the event that tough questions are asked and in the event that less-than-ideal responses are given, it might not matter.
That’s the other benefit of the timing of the press conference. It’s now the opening act to Opening Night. As noted by Peter King in his Football Morning in America column, the annual Monday night free-for-all starts two hours after the Commissioner’s press conference begins.
“By dusk, Goodell’s words, barring a headline-producing answer, will be secondary or tertiary as news of the day shifts to Travis Kelce getting lobbed his first Taylor Swift question, and Kyle Shanahan defending his QB from the he’s-just-a-game-manager crowd,” King writes.
And he’s right. In the past, the things said by the Commissioner on Friday dominated Saturday, since nothing else was happening. Now, his words will quickly be eclipsed by mass access to the Chiefs and the 49ers on the first night of Super Bowl week.
It’s the next best thing to not holding a press conference at all.
“I think the whole thing is a bad look for Goodell,” King writes. “Very bad. Either he’s got thinner skin than he likes people to think he has, or he’s afraid of answering tough questions about how far the league’s gotten into bed with sports betting interests after saying for years legalized sports gambling would be a pox on the NFL. It’s a pox, until you can make billions on it.”
Well, at least he’ll no longer try to claim he’s available to the media almost every day.
