Roger Goodell Finally Addresses Allegations Of NFL’s Racist Hiring Practices

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has finally issued a statement following recent controversies and allegations regarding racism that have come to light. This comes hot off of the release of a statement by the Congress of the United States House of Representatives. They released a statement just yesterday addressed to Roger Goodell himself.

When these allegations and theories first came to light, the NFL remined tight-lipped and even suggested that the allegations were unfounded, but now, perhaps spurned by the statement issued on the 4th by the House of Representatives, they found the need to act, which has caused many to wonder.

Some of the statement issued by the House of Representatives addressed specifically to Goodell reads as follows:

“We are writing to express concern about new evidence that calls into question the National Football League’s (NFL) assertions that it pursued an independent internal investigation into the toxic workplace at the Washington Football Team (WFT) under team owner Daniel Snyder.

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In light of this evidence, we urge you to end the League’s obstruction and immediately produce the findings from the internal investigation and other documents the Committee has requested. In August 2020, the NFL announced that it was “taking over the investigation” initially launched by the WFT and outside attorney Beth Wilkinson. However, documents obtained by the Committee show that just days later, the NFL privately signed an agreement with the WFT to
pursue a ‘joint legal strategy.’

Documents also show that the WFT agreed that, following the
internal investigation, a written report would be created by Ms. Wilkinson documenting her findings and recommendations. However, the Committee has learned that you personally directed that Ms. Wilkinson was to present her findings to you orally rather than provide a written report.

This new information raises doubts about the NFL’s purported commitment to independence, transparency, and integrity in addressing workplace misconduct at the WFT. In light of these developments, we call on the NFL to immediately produce to the Committee the findings of Ms. Wilkinson’s investigation, as well as the documents underlying those findings, so that the Committee can evaluate any workplace misconduct that occurred and the extent to which the NFL may have attempted to conceal those findings.”

It was today that Goodell , in his own statement, said that after taking a closer look, the results were not at all acceptable.

“We have made significant efforts to promote diversity…however, we must acknowledge that particularly with respect to head coaches the results have been unacceptable…”

So it seems that the allegations have been founded on some truth, which wasn’t the consensus at the start of these controversies. Especially the laments put forth specifically by Coach Flores, who brought up a lawsuit against the Giants in recent history specifically for an “alleged pattern of racist hiring.” He also filed lawsuits against 2 other NFL teams: The Broncos and The Dolphins.

Naturally, Twitter and the rest of social media had a field day with Goodall’s statement, which essentially seems like an admission of guilt and in actuality, it sort of is. As is clear in his statement (posted below, courtesy of Adam Schefter’s Twitter account), change is on the way, but many feel that this comes a little too late for comfort.