When we posted on Sunday an item on the report that the NFL fined the Seahawks $5 million for non-compliance with ownership requirements, the league promptly sent an email reiterating its position (as mentioned in the original blurb) that the Seahawks were not fined.
Twice over the weekend, we asked the NFL if there was any comment on the extensive presence of Giants co-owner Steve Tisch in the latest Jeffrey Epstein files Friday news dump. There has been no response to two separate inquiries.
They won’t be able to kick the can on Monday. Someone inevitably will ask Commissioner Roger Goodell about Tisch at Goodell’s annual Super Bowl press conference. They’ll surely have talking points ready for Goodell to use. It will be interesting to hear what they are.
Margaret Fleming of FrontOfficeSports.com has created a list of all sports figures mentioned in Friday’s release of Epstein emails and other documents. Only Tisch’s communications relate to Epstein’s apparent specialty of connecting men of means and influence with women. There is no suggestion or indication that the women to which the messages refer were minors.
Tisch issued a statement on Friday night.
“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments,” Tisch said. “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.”
There have been calls for more information, and for the league to take action against Tisch. Ian O’Connor of TheAthletic.com, whose extensive reporting on the hiring of coach John Harbaugh makes clear that O’Conner has contacts high in Giants organization, has written a column arguing that Tisch “should be fined, suspended and prohibited from participating in any team or league activities for some period of time.”
That’s the bare minimum. Other owners have sold their equity based on related behaviors. Jerry Richardson promptly sold the Panthers when a string of past settlements with team employees came to light. Daniel Snyder eventually was compelled by the league to sell the Commanders due to multiple examples of alleged workplace misconduct.
Writes O’Connor: “Tisch should really sit in front of a mirror and ask himself if he’s still fit to be the team’s chairman and executive vice president, or if it would be a better idea to step aside and turn over those titles to his siblings Jonathan and Laurie, who both sit on the board of directors.”
For years, the league has taken the position that “[o]wnership and club or league management have traditionally been held to a higher standard and will be subject to more significant discipline when violations of the Personal Conduct Policy occur.” A full section of Playmakers was dedicated to various situations from 2001 through 2021 during which owners apparently were not held to a higher standard — and possibly were held at times to a lower standard.
In 2023, revisions to the version of the Personal Conduct Policy specifically applicable to owners removed the language quoted above. The league’s position was that the sentence remains in the broader version of the policy. Still, the change came after word surfaced that Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson intended to highlight the double standard in the case arising from his 20-plus civil lawsuits alleging misconduct during massage-therapy sessions by pointing to the NFL’s treatment of multiple owners.
One of the owners, Jerry Jones of the Cowboys, chided the approach.
“It is a standard Players Association comeback,” Jones said at the time. ”That is the drill. That is the drill to go around to say you didn’t punish such and such. Anybody would know that every player case and every case that involves non-players in the NFL are dealing with dramatically different principal facts, which is all the difference in the world. . . .
“It would be like walking down to the courthouse and saying, ‘You didn’t give that guy that much,’ and not take into account what the action was or the circumstances behind it. That’s called shooting volleys. That’s just shooting stuff over your back. That’s the way I look at it when I see something like that.”
Now, the league has found itself dealing with a unique and unprecedented set of “principal facts.” How will the league deal with Tisch?
For now, the NFL has opted for radio silence. When Goodell speaks to reporters later today, ignoring the question repeatedly will not be an option.
