Kraft was there supporting his Guy, Rog. Here is the verbate if you are curious:
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER
MICHAEL BIDWILL, OWNER ARIZONA CARDINALS, CHAIRMAN
CHARLOTTE JONES ANDERSON, DALLAS COWBOYS EXECUTIVE VICE PRES.
BOB MCNAIR, THE HOUSTON TEXANS OWNER
ROBERT KRAFT, OWNER NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
GOODELL
135758 Okay this morning the NFL owners unanimously adopted a new personal conduct policy that applies to everyone in the NFL: owners, coaches, league staff, team employees, and players.
5813 First and foremost significantly strengthens our conduct rules and programs. Everyone in the NFL is accountable to tougher rules and better procedures. Second, these high standards will be upheld through a rigorous process.
5832 One that is clear, formal, consistent and transparent. That includes a new process for league investigations. The addition of an advisory group of experts and a new disciplinary officer, this will be a highly qualified individual with a criminal justice background hired as soon as possible for the newly created position as special counsel for investigations and conduct.
5903 The person will oversee our investigations and decide the discipline for violations of the policy. This is a product of consultation with more than 150 experts on domestic violence, sexual assault, and violent crime. We spoke extensively with the NFL PA, former players, wives of former players and leaders in business, academia, and law enforcement.
5932 The policy is comprehensive, it is strong, it is tough, and it is better for everyone associated with the NFL. I have stated it many times, being part of the NFL is a privilege it is not a right, the measures adopted today uphold that principle.
140000 I also said I would appoint a committee of owners to oversee this initiative. The committee will be comprised of 9 owners. Michael Bidwill will serve as the chairman, Arthur Blank, Clark Hunt, Jimmy Haslam, Charlotte Jones Anderson, George MaCaskey, and Bob McNair, and two former players that are part of NFL ownership. Warrick Dunn of the Falcons and John Stallworth of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
0033 They will review and update our policies and programs on a regular basis. As Greg said I’ll be back after we conclude the meeting to answer some of your questions, in the meantime many of our staff Anne Idikson, Jeff Pash, Lisa Freill, Cynthia Hogan and Troy Vincent (???) will be able to talk in more detail about the policy of it. Before breaking here I would like four owners to make a brief comment on behalf of ownership.
0102 Mike Bidwill, Charlotte Jones Anderson, Bob McNair, and Robert Kraft. I believe we’re going to start with Michael Bidwill.
MICHAEL BIDWILL, OWNER ARIZONA CARDINALS, CHAIRMAN
0110 Thank you commissioner, we fully support this new policy. I think the commissioner asked me to chair this committee because of my background from 1990 to ‘96 serving as a federal prosecutor in Phoenix working in violent crimes.
0127 That background gives me a unique perspective on some of the issues we’re facing and over the last couple of months I’ve been able to input quite a bit on this new policy. The policy on this committee is all about making sure we keep this up to date and that we change this and look at changes and keep it fresh, keep looking at best practices and raising the effectiveness of this policy.
0157 The policy’s just not about discipline, it’s about education and training. Thank you.
CHARLOTTE JONES ANDERSON, DALLAS COWBOYS EXECUTIVE VICE PRES.
0205 As Michael said the ownership is in full support of the conduct policy and it’s very important that we work together both from an NFL foundation standpoint and the conduct committee to really bring about cultural change and at all levels really of our game of football and as a mother of two kids who play football, it is important that character development and character education starts at a young age.
0231 We plan to do just that, that will actually take time, obviously what we do we want to evaluate we want to measure over a long-term perspective and we’re excited about getting underway with those plan. It’s also very important from a committee perspective that we represent a diverse background of points of views and perspectives and I think the committee certainly is made up of just that.
0257 Along with our experts in the field that will guide us and give us outside information we look forward to not only supporting the policy that we have in place but constantly evaluating and making sure that we are doing the very best that we can to our ability to have an effective policy, thank you.
BOB MCNAIR, THE HOUSTON TEXANS OWNER
0318 Throughout my business career I’ve had a number of different companies, we’ve always had values and mission statements and conduct standards that were extremely important to us as to how we run our business.
0335 We’re doing the same thing here at the NFL, we’ve spent a lot of time on this, I think that the most important part of it is that this is not a policy that is directed at the players, this is a policy that covers all of us and it starts with our own teams, it starts in the headquarters
0356 and the players and the trainers, coaches, everyone else will be a part of it, but it’s a very comprehensive policy and I think one that we can all be proud of and work hard to see that we enforce is properly.
ROBERT KRAFT, OWNER NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
0415 I’ve had the privilege of being an owner in the league for 21 years here and watched this product grow as the number one entertainment product in America. And I think one of the reasons we’ve been able to do that is that we’ve had a leadership and specifically in the office of commissioner where someone wakes up every day and thinks about what’s in the strategic best interest of the game.
0447 And whether that be, and the most important part of the whole process is making sure players are treated properly. And I know some of you might question how we came to the conclusion that the commissioner, the commissioner’s office should be the final arbiter of everything and we gave that a lot of thought and the reason is that’s the one person that understands what’s important
0515 long-term interests of the game. Owners can have specific interests, players can, that’s short term; but the commissioner is always looking for the long term best interests of the game and I think it’s what separates us. We thought about having independent arbitrator and that’s a one off situation where people trying to do a good job can compromise or water down what our best interests are.
0544 And so we feel very strongly about that and we’re very excited about this policy.
