Roger Goodell Joins Chorus of Silence Regarding Tisch, Jeffrey Epstein

In his Super Bowl news conference Monday, Goodell sidestepped questions about Giants co-owner Steve Tisch's relationship to the convicted child sex offender. Where the league chooses to go from here will be telling.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks to the media at San Jose Convention Center. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

With all the fury of a light spring shower that inspires the scent of a Yankee Candle, the NFL said it would “get the facts first” before making a determination as to whether Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, whose name appears within the millions of documents, audio files and videos related to the disgraced Jeffrey Epstein, would be subject to league discipline.

Tisch’s name comes up in the Epstein document release more than 400 times, with their correspondence primarily taking place years after Epstein pleaded guilty to the charge of procuring a child for prostitution.

Of course, the tenor of Roger Goodell’s yearly Super Bowl press conference rose to the expected level of delicate, handle-with-care pragmatism. But the larger issue at hand is how the NFL plans to “look at all the facts” when a global network of police and governing bodies can’t seem to do an adequate job of the same task. Hobbyists on Reddit seem to be approaching the release of the files with more gusto than career law enforcement officials and prosecutors. Sitting politicians, businessmen, celebrities, musicians—the sheer volume of names connected to this individual makes adequately seeing all who are truly guilty of punishment (or, at the very least, a public reckoning with their life choices) feel like catching single snowflakes in a bomb cyclone.

Which brings us back to the NFL, which, when it wants to exact punishment and take what it believes to be a moral stand, can absolutely do so and has a rich history in the genre. Dan Snyder was fined tens of millions of dollars and wiped off the football landscape for creating a hellscape of a working environment in Washington. The same can be said for Jerry Richardson, whose workplace sexual misconduct earned him a swift removal from the NFL ownership fraternity. Yet other owners, whose conduct has vacillated from inappropriate to abhorrent to downright deleterious to the brand of football to, finally, serious criminal offenses, continue to enjoy positions of leadership atop one of the world’s most popular sports leagues. As it pertains to its players, there is also a tapestry of forceful punishment in the Goodell era, effectively utilizing the tailwind of public perception and slamming serious offenders with indefinite suspensions or hefty fines.

I think it’s fair to say that we remember Michael Vick just as much for being suspended indefinitely by the NFL for his role in a gruesome scandal involving a dogfighting ring as we do for the fact that he actually served jail time. The same can be said of Plaxico Burress, who fired a gun into his own leg at a nightclub. Being held accountable by the NFL matters in the public sphere. Who is being held accountable by the NFL matters in the public sphere.

Though this paints an incredibly bleak portrait of the world as it is, the NFL and Tisch will serve as a kind of bellwether for how other people like Tisch—who maintains his innocence and says the women he discussed with Epstein were all of appropriate age, despite the fact that, again, Epstein had already been convicted at a time when Tisch appeared to be contacting the businessman for dates—are treated by their respective entities. It’s so important that we reclaim some semblance of non-politicized moral high ground and agree as a society that associating with this individual is grounds for removal from a high-ranking position. Period. It’s not controversial to say that Epstein was truly heinous and that anyone, regardless of whether he owns a team you happen to like or chairs a political party you favor, should face consequences for floating in his circle. Everyone should have to explain themselves. Everyone should have to face the unfathomable scope and depth of Epstein’s alleged and documented crimes.

Goodell said he was concerned about having Epstein tied to an NFL owner and how that might reflect on the brand, but by suggesting a reporter may be getting ahead of herself by asking about punishment, it shakes confidence in the idea that Goodell could possibly bring a bit of much-needed common sense to the table. Tisch, if anything, got ahead of himself by issuing a terse statement that sorely missed the mark in tone and tenor. This goes beyond the same conversation we had a few years ago during Robert Kraft’s massage parlor scandal. At the time, at least through an NFL lens, the idea was how professional football could continue playing hard-ass country sheriff when it came to its players and allow owners to wholly and undoubtedly embarrass the league tenfold.

In a sort of reversal, the rest of the business world, the music world, Hollywood, politics—they are looking to see if the NFL will take off its kid gloves and treat Tisch not as someone who is above the law but is subject to it. While Monday didn’t offer any strong inclination that it will happen, owners are adept in their ability to move in silence and close ranks when necessary. Again, it’s not a criminal court. But, to the powerful who think conversations like this—with people like him—are appropriate, it’s the closest thing to justice that people above the law will ever know.