How The NFL Survived The Worst Crisis In Its History … So Far
With an army of influential lobbyists, shrewd maneuvering, and the knowledge that America is addicted to its product — that’s how.
When the National Football League was blitzed by the Ray Rice saga last September, it reignited lingering controversies over the league’s tax-exempt status, its treatment of players suffering from concussions and brain damage and its handling of players arrested for domestic violence. It seemed like the perfect storm of scandals that could permanently harm the most lucrative sports league in the world, and threaten its $10 billion in annual revenue.
Members of Congress held hearings and threatened to revoke the NFL’s decades-long status as the most profitable tax-exempt organization in the country. A majority of Americans surveyed in a poll joined the National Organization of Women and prominent female celebrities in calling for Commissioner Roger Goodell’s resignation. And the league’s 32 team owners were on the hook for the potentially multi-billion dollar renumeration to thousands of former players suffering from brain damage and other head injuries, according to a revised court agreement in July. Major advertisers, including Anheuser-Busch (top spender in the past five Super Bowls and $50 million sponsor of the league), began lashing out to express their collective disappointment and dissatisfaction with the league’s handling of domestic violence incidents.
Yet, just a few months later, on the cusp of its marquee event, the NFL remains as indomitable as ever.
Goodell still runs the league — earning some $44 million a year for his efforts — after quarterbacking an incredible comeback that relied on the strategic hiring of powerful women, instituting some tough new policies, deploying an army of lobbyists, and trusting in America’s loyalty for its most-loved sport.
Here’s how the league did it.
On September 8, 2014, when TMZ released a shocking video it had obtained of Baltimore Ravens star running back Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee Janay Palmer in the face in a hotel elevator, millions of Americans watched in horror, disgusted with the athlete’s violence. Even President Obama expressed his anger, saying that as the father of two daughters, “domestic violence is contemptible and unacceptable” and saying that stopping it is bigger than football.
America soon turned its outrage toward the league, which had suspended Rice in March for only two games over his role in the incident. When Goodell back-pedaled, admitted that he “didn’t get it right” in initially deciding Rice’s punishment and beefing up the league’s domestic violence program, it only fueled the fire, and soon lawmakers were demanding more drastic changes amid calls for Goodell to step down.
That night, over drinks after work, one junior-level executive at a top team remembers how depressed his coworkers were about the fate of the league. “Don’t worry about it,” he reassured them. “This’ll blow over. Americans fucking love their football.”
To face the onslaught, the league’s first reaction was to circle the wagons. In the days following the release of the Rice video, powerful New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft called up team owners and persuaded them to release statements of support for Goodell, reports GQ magazine. Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said he didn’t agree “at all” with calls for Goodell’s resignation and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan expressed his faith in the commissioner, too. “They’re standing by him, across the board,” one league source told CBSSports.com.
When another tale of an out-of-control player made headlines — this time it was Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, indicted on September 11 for striking his 4-year-old son with a wooden switch, some of the league’s biggest sponsors, including Anheuser-Busch, McDonald, Visa, FedEx, and Campbell Soup, issued tough statements expressing their “concern” about the league.
On September 16, Sen. Cory A. Booker (D-N.J.) introduced a bill in Congress to revoke the league’s tax-exempt status. Days later, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Tim Johnson introduced their own legislation to scrap the NFL’s tax status if it kept supporting the controversial team name of the Washington Redskins. At that point, the league’s very future was actually called into question with major newspapers running headlines like, “Can the NFL Survive Its Domestic Abuse Scandals?”
That, of course, was the moment when the NFL went on the offensive, hiring the powerful and politically-connected Cynthia Hogan to helm its army of lobbyists. From a suite of offices just blocks from the White House and some of the most influential law firms in the country, the NFL employed some 20 lobbyists in all and spent more than $1 million in 2014 to work the halls of Congress to convince lawmakers: 1) of its commitment to address address domestic violence issues; 2) that it should not be forced to start paying taxes; and 3) that it can be trusted to ensure that players suffering from head injuries get the proper treatment.
Hogan was perfectly positioned to captain that team — she had previously worked as a deputy assistant to President Obama, counsel to Vice President Biden and had helped pass the Violence Against Women Act in Congress in 1994. As the NFL’s senior vice president of public policy and government affairs, Hogan became the public face of the league in Washington, meeting lawmakers and seeking to address their concerns privately — without the need for contentious public hearings.
When two of the most powerful female Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, demanded a zero tolerance policy, that players arrested for domestic violence be kicked out of the league, Hogan took advantage of her friendly relationship with Boxer, with whom she worked together on the Violence Against Women Act. She met with the lawmakers’ staffs, and the Feinstein and Boxer predictably soon toned down their rhetoric — convincing them that such a policy would discourage victims fearful of eradicating their husbands’ earning potential.
“My sense now is that people have felt that the efforts we have made are significant and real,” Hogan told the Washington Post. “People say to me, ‘You know, we haven’t made any progress, things are terrible.’ That’s not my perspective. I think about the first hearings we held, the stories we heard… We’re light years past that.”
Another of the league’s high-profile lobbyists is Steven Elmendorf, a powerful Democratic strategist who has worked for the NFL since 2010 and was paid $240,000 in 2014 — primarily to thwarting efforts to revoke the league’s anti-trust exemption. Elmendorf, who has visited the White House at least 50 times since 2009, met with Obama staffers four times in the month and a half after the release of the Rice video in September, though it’s not clear if they discussed the NFL.
Hogan was just one of five women hired in September by the league. It also added a chief marketing officer, three outside domestic violence experts (including former prosecutor Lisa Friel, who was chief of the Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes unit) and promoted staffer Anna Isaacson to a new position as vice president of social responsibility.
In 2014, the number of management positions at the NFL held by women increased to just 29.6 percent (from 29.3 percent in 2013), according to an annual report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport — gave the NFL an overall C- grade for gender hiring practices.
The league’s sincerity was questioned by some lawmakers, including California’s Rep. Jackie Speier. “It is not lost on me that the lobbyist that the NFL hired used to be Joe Biden’s staffer and worked on VAWA,” she told Bloomberg News. “It feels to me like the mother who founded Mother’s Against Drunk Driving going to work for the spirits industry.”
Friel insists that the Goodell and his team are committed to reform, recently telling ESPN that the commissioner is committed to getting it “right,” as evidenced by his spending time with domestic violence awareness groups to gain their insights. Throughout the fall, Friel and Goodell met with players’ wives and traveled the country, talking to law enforcement and academic experts on domestic violence, including domestic abuse hotline call center staffers in Austin, Texas.
Isaacson says that the league has received 5,000 pieces of correspondence in recent months from groups that want to assist the league in its efforts to combat domestic violence, and that she is committed to answering every one of them.
Friel was instrumental in helping put together the NFL’s new code of conduct policy, which it unveiled in December, which enables the league to investigate an arrest and put a player accused of a felony on paid leave before the legal case is resolved. (The league also set up funds for counseling, expanded services for victims and hired a new special counsel for investigations and conduct.)
That policy was immediately put to the test with the arrests of San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Ray McDonald in December on sexual assault charges, and Indianapolis Colts linebacker Josh McNary in January on rape charges. McDonald was cut from the Niners, while McNary was bounced from the Colts’ active roster, and not allowed to practice or attend games.
But the ultimate test of the new code will be this spring when Florida State quarterback and former Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston, who remains dogged by an allegation of sexual assault, enters the 2015 NFL draft as a potential No. 1 overall pick. In previous drafts, of course, plenty of troubled students — from Lawrence Phillips to Todd Marinovich — were drafted despite their off the field issues. (Interestingly, players arrested but never charged during college were more successful in the NFL than players who never got into trouble, according to a study cited by ESPN.)
Now, under the league’s new policy, players like Winston will effectively be on probation when he initially reaches the NFL on account of his college behavior — which will be considered as part of the disciplinary process for any new incident. “From a personal conduct policy standpoint, it states in the policy and the Aug. 28 memo, when we announced the enhanced discipline, that a prior history of some kind could impact the discipline if a new violation occurs,” said Isaacson. Charges were never filed against Winston in the Florida State incident, but the alleged victim has not to date recanted her account amid claims that the Tallahassee Police Department mishandled the case due to Winston’s celebrity status.
The data shows that the number of players arrested between September and December in 2014 (8) did drop by a third from 2013 (12), according to PRo Football Talk, but it’s not clear if that was due to players being extra cautious in light of the enormous focus on criminal behavior, or other factors.
Meanwhile, Ray Rice won his appeal to be reinstated in the league, making him eligible to sign with any NFL team in November. He also settled his $3.529 million lawsuit against the Ravens for back pay. At least four teams, including the Colts and Saints, reportedly have expressed some level of interest in signing him, but none are expected to actively pursue him, sources told ESPN last month.
Still at issue remains the NFL’s tax-exempt status, which some estimate to be worth close to $100 million a year. For a league that earns billions of dollars and pays its commissioner more than the CEOs of most publicly traded companies, Senator Angus King (I-Maine) says most of his constituents are “astounded” to find out that the league is considered a non-profit organization.
Football’s unique carve-out was crafted in the 1960s as part of a political deal hatched by two of the Senate’s then most powerful members, Russell Long and Hale Boggs, who both sought a team in New Orleans. Since then, NFL representatives have argued that it’s not an issue since the league’s 32 teams, which claim most of the billions in annual revenue earned by the league, each pay taxes individually. On its most recent tax form, the league revealed that it earned $326.8 million in revenue but had $317.8 million in expenses, with a balance of $9 million.
Every few years, a bipartisan group of lawmakers pushes to revoke the status, but the league’s lobbying power has overwhelmed such efforts thus far. And though the recent bills proposed by several lawmakers made headlines — including one by Connecticut’s Senator Richard Blumenthal that would pull the status if the NFL doesn’t impose tougher punishments for domestic violence — most experts don’t expect them to gain much, if any traction.
“The NFL has a lot of power and a large lobbying wing, so it’s hard for a politician to go after them,” says sports economist Andrew Zimbalist. “If [Senator] John McCain pushed this issue, Arizona wouldn’t get the Super Bowl for at least 20 years.” Zimbalist also notes that revoking the status wouldn’t make much of a difference since the league would just find ways to avoid paying taxes by distributing more money to the teams, essentially making its profits disappear.
Despite all of this negative press and legitimate concern, on the eve of football’s biggest night, the league has yet to lose a single sponsor. “It’s the biggest audience in the world — of course we’re going to be there,” said a spokesman for one of the league’s advertisers. “We’ve made it very clear to the NFL that they need to do more to address domestic violence and so far we’re encouraged by their progress.”
Some advertisers, such as Dove, are tailoring their ads to emphasize that a man can express real strength off the football field. The soapmaker’s ad features happy dads playing with their children and ends with the words: “What makes a man stronger? Showing that he cares.”
On Friday, Goodell was contrite and contemplative in a speech at his annual State of the League news conference. He acknowledged that it’s been a tough year, but insisted that he never considered resigning — even amid the intense scrutiny of the Rice scandal. “We obviously as an organization have gone through adversity, but more importantly, adversity for me. It’s an opportunity for us to get better,” he said.
Of late, it’s been more of the same, from #DeflateGate to a recent AP report finding that NFL-backed youth concussion laws are largely inadequate. Goodell bristled, of course, when asked whether it was a conflict of interest to have the league hire and pay outside attorneys to provide investigations that are supposed to be independent. (Former FBI director Robert Mueller, whose probe found no evidence that any NFL employee received or watched the tape showing Rice knocking out his future wife before it showed up on TMZ, worked at the same law firm as Baltimore Ravens president Dick Cass.) Goodell insisted that it wasn’t a problem because all the people involved were of “uncompromising integrity.”
Still, it doesn’t seem as though much phases Goodell. As he left the podium Friday after an endless barrage of questions, he smiled and shouted, “Enjoy the weekend!” He’s got 44 million reasons to enjoy his.
