Roger Goodell is ducking hard questions

If an elephant is within the room, you might have two selections: handle it or ignore it. Whenever you’re the NFL, you might have a 3rd one: Take away it.

In an unprecedented transfer that feels prefer it’s one thing straight out of Donald Trump’s playbook, Roger Goodell and the NFL have moved the commissioner’s annual Tremendous Bowl press convention to Monday — when press attendance is at its lowest — and made the occasion invite-only, in accordance with a report from Mike Florio.

“If you wish to attend Commissioner Roger Goodell’s Tremendous Bowl press convention, you’d higher get to Las Vegas earlier. And also you’d higher hope for an invite,” Florio wrote on Thursday night for NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk. “This yr, the NFL is transferring the Goodell press availability to Monday. For years, it was on Friday of Tremendous Bowl week, when most media have been on the town — and so they have been current for the shotgun-style Q&A. A number of years in the past, or longer, it moved to Wednesday. Now, it’s transferring to Monday. It’s additionally an invitation-only occasion. I didn’t get an invite.”

When the NFL launched the schedule on Thursday, the press convention was lacking from the day’s occasions on Thursday and Friday as typical. Deadspin reached out to the league for remark. As of publication, the league has but to reply.

This leads me to imagine one factor — Jim Trotter has Roger Goodell shook.

Final yr, NFL Media didn’t renew Trotter’s contract after he grilled Goodell in regards to the league’s lackluster variety efforts at consecutive Tremendous Bowl press conferences. However whereas Trotter is gone, the league nonetheless sucks at variety, despite the recent hiring of three Black head coaches. The query was going to be if anyone was going to step up and ask about it subsequent week. That absolutely received’t be the case now.

“Why does the NFL and its homeowners have such a troublesome time, on the highest ranges, hiring Black folks into decision-making positions?” Trotter asked Goodell at the Super Bowl in 2022.

“And but a yr later, nothing has modified,” Trotter mentioned final yr to Goodell. “James Baldwin as soon as mentioned, ‘I can’t imagine what you say as a result of I see what you do.”

The primary time, Goodell fumbled by a solution and positioned blame elsewhere. The next yr he did the identical, even with an entire yr to organize for a query about a problem that’s been round for many years.

Weeks later, Trotter was out of a job. Final September, he filed a 53-page racial discrimination/retaliation lawsuit in opposition to the NFL that reads just like the league’s playbook on the way to mistreat Black folks. “The NFL has claimed it needs to be held accountable concerning variety, fairness, and inclusion,” mentioned Trotter. “I attempted to take action, and it price me my job. I’m submitting this lawsuit as a result of I can’t complain about issues which might be fallacious if I’m unwilling to struggle for what is correct.”

The lawsuit additionally alleges that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones once said, “If Blacks really feel some form of method, they need to purchase their very own workforce, and rent who they need to rent.” It additionally claims that Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula said, “If the Black gamers don’t prefer it right here, they need to return to Africa and see how unhealthy it’s,” about participant protests in opposition to racial injustices. Jones and Pegula denied it in the identical method that Goodell and NFL Media have denied that Trotter’s questions are why he wasn’t retained.

Nobody ever admits to racism, keep in mind that. And when the individuals who would most likely ask about it greater than seemingly haven’t been invited to the open discussion board, we’re left with just one seemingly cause — concern of accountability.

As of now, the league is making an attempt to get Trotter’s lawsuit dismissed. They hired Loretta Lynch — the primary Black lady to function U.S. Lawyer Common — to defend them. The NFL additionally employed for Brian Flores’ case that’s headed to courtroom quickly. When rich white individuals are accused of doing one thing racial, sometimes they get a Black person to defend them/be on the opposite aspect. It’s why we all know who Chris Darden is.

The NFL managed to get the elephant out of the room, however the mess hasn’t been eliminated, it’s solely gotten messier. Now we’ve got to attend and see if anyone — who the league needed there — will ask Roger Goodell what went into this determination and why. Don’t be shocked if reporters don’t contact the topic, particularly for the reason that majority of the media within the room can be individuals who aren’t “various.” Which, ultimately, is all Jim Trotter was asking about.