Former NFL Network reporter Jim Trotter believes that his public questioning of Commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the demographics of the NFL Media newsroom ultimately got Trotter fired. Even though Trotter wasn’t present to ask Goodell the same question at a third straight Super Bowl press conference, the question was asked again.
Darren Smith of KLKC radio raised the issue in Trotter’s absence.
“As of this press conference, the NFL Media newsroom still employs zero Black managers, zero Black copy editors, zero full-time Black employees on the news desk, and your only full-time Black employee, Larry Campbell, passed away over the weekend,” Smith said. “How does knowing this sit well with you, and after two years of being asked this question, why has there not been any change or any hirings in that area?”
“Well, I disagree completely that there hasn’t been any change,” Goodell responded. “I’m happy to get your data and share it with our people and make sure that we get an answer for you. I don’t have all the data. I will tell you that [for] the first time, 51 percent of our employees across the league, across the network, across all of our media platforms, not including players, are either people of color or women. First time ever. So progress is being made. And there are areas where we still need to work and we still need to improve, whether it’s offensive assistants or maybe people within our media newsroom. We will continue to do that, and make significant progress, as we have.”
Said Trotter on the matter: "[Goodell] simply doesn’t care or doesn’t want to know. The data is what it is: the NFL newsroom has zero Black managers, zero Black copy editors, and zero full-time Black employees on the news desk. Those are facts. Nothing he says changes that.”
The reality is that Goodell was asked a very specific, precise question. He rejected it as being based on bad data, but he offered no data in response — even though he had every reason to believe that someone might ask that question. Then, Goodell obscured the issue by painting with a broad brush.
That might work at an invitation-only press conference. It definitely won’t work if/when he’s under oath and testifying in Trotter’s lawsuit.