Advertisement

NFL defends its ability to investigate off-field incidents, thinks it will get even better at it

Frank Schwab
NFL writer
The NFL, under commissioner Roger Goodell, has promised to do its own investigations of off-field matters. (AP)
The NFL, under commissioner Roger Goodell, has promised to do its own investigations of off-field matters. (AP)

When the NFL decided it would handle its own investigations, and hand out punishments that may or may not have anything to do with what was decided in the legal system, it put itself in a difficult spot.

The NFL does well putting on football games. It is not good at being an amateur arm of the law. We’ve seen that many times. The Kareem Hunt saga was another chapter. Yet, a report this week from the Washington Post said the league has no plans to change its investigative methods.

On Wednesday, the NFL spent some time explaining its limitations in investigating players, but also said it thinks it’s doing just fine and will improve at it. It’s hard to conjoin those thoughts together, but it makes sense to the league.

NFL acknowledges limitations in investigations

Here are the comments from the NFL executives (the tweets from members of NFL Media).

The NFL admitted it is limited in its investigative powers. The problem is, the NFL has proclaimed itself capable of imposing punishment regardless of what happens in the legal process. We saw that with the Ezekiel Elliott case (and the NFLPA called out the NFL for it).

When you act like it’s in your best interests to ignore the legal system in certain instances of handing out punishment, it’s hard to then make the excuse you don’t have the same powers as police investigators.

Jones is the NFL’s chief disciplinary officer.

The NFL can’t compel any witness, who isn’t an employee of the league, to talk to them. Nor can it compel, say, a hotel to turn over surveillance video. We saw that happen with Hunt, though there are plenty of questions about how and when the NFL even tried to get that now infamous video (Jones said the NFL could not get the video).

TMZ, which published the video of Hunt and Ray Rice before that, pays for those videos. The NFL, which has no power to get them other than asking nice, doesn’t want to pay. That’s probably the right approach, but again, it’s clearly an impediment into the investigations the NFL wants to do.

NFL won’t stop its investigations

The NFL’s overriding message appeared to be, they’re doing well because they act whenever they can get evidence and interviews, which they’re never ensured to get.

Then, in a heck of a statement, Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill promised the NFL is going to get even better investigating off-field incidents.

So on one hand, the NFL admits what should be obvious, that as a private business it has very little power when it comes to investigations … yet, Bidwill doubled down and said the league will continue to get better at it. Sure.

The NFL put itself in this position to be second-guessed. They had a crisis with Rice, and reacted by amping up their efforts to be an investigative unit. It’s not going well, for obvious reasons, but they’re not giving up.

More from Yahoo Sports:
• Coroner releases report on college athlete’s death
• Franco: Mexico’s tragic MSG history awaits Canelo
• Oakland files federal lawsuit against Raiders, NFL ‘cartel’
• Paylor: 7 jaw-dropping throws from Chiefs’ Mahomes

– – – – – – –

Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Subscribe to The Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast
 Apple Podcasts• Stitcher • Google Podcasts