NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed several league matters in sit downs with ESPN and NFL Network during the nets' pre-Draft coverage Thursday. Goodell, on what must happen to have full-capacity stadiums this season: "We all have to continue to move on the vaccine. That’s imperative for our communities. Health officials, obviously, have to bless that. We’re working very closely with them, and I think that after our experience in 2020, I think that they’ve seen that the NFL does it right and does it safely. I hope that credibility and that ability to show them how we did it will help us as we approach the season." Goodell said with the CBA and media-rights contracts now in place, along with a 17-game regular season and full season amid a pandemic, the next challenge for the league is "what I call the sort of foundational and things that we’ve been working on for really a decade, ultimately, and that gives us the ability to do a lot of things that are really important to the league. I think that we have a lot of growth still on our media platforms, and we want to find ways to do that with our partners and also direct-to-consumer. We, obviously, want to grow our fanbase through international, (and) legalized sports betting will be a big opportunity for our fans and a way to engage our fans more deeply in our game" ( "NFL Draft Countdown," ESPN, 4/29).
MORE ON VACCINATIONS: Goodell also said of NFL personnel having to be vaccinated and whether the league plans to push the NFLPA to mandate players also get vaccinated: "We're showing that we think vaccines are important by having all our personnel vaccinated. We think that’s important, keeping everyone safe, individuals as well as their families and as well as everyone in our organization. That’s been our focus. We've talked to the union an awful lot. We, obviously, strongly encourage that. We believe it’s in the best interest of everyone, but it is a personal decision" ( "NFL Draft Kickoff," NFL Network, 4/29).
