Committee hearing: NFL boss Goodell must face unpleasant questions

At the hearing of NFL boss Roger Goodell in the wake of the scandal at the Commanders, the committee chairwoman increases the pressure on Daniel Snyder.

Munich/Washington – The scandal surrounding allegations of sexual harassment at the Washington Commanders has finally reached the political arena.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell faced drastic demands in his hearing before the most important investigative committee of the US House of Representatives.

Although the franchise from the capital had already been fined ten million dollars within the league, demands for the dismissal of owner Daniel Snyder arose during the hearing.

Goodell: Can’t fire Snyder on his own

When asked by a deputy if Goodell will remove Snyder from his post, the NFL boss replied, “I don’t have the authority to remove him. “

In fact, according to “ESPN” information, an owner can only be removed from office if three-quarters of the other team owners vote in favour. However, Goodell could at least propose such a vote to the board.

The fact that Snyder did not attend the hearing himself, citing business commitments in France, was perceived by committee chair Carolyn Maloney as further evidence of his attitude towards women.

“Apparently, Mister Snyder is in France, where he took his luxury yacht to a resort. That should tell you how much respect he has for women in the workplace,” she said.

In doing so, she underscored her intention to compel Snyder to testify before the committee, saying, “The NFL is unwilling or unable to hold Mister Snyder accountable. Therefore, I intend to subpoena him for testimony next week.”

However, Snyder has now also not accepted the second invitation. Through a spokesman, he let it be known that “Congress should not be dealing with issues that a football team took care of years ago. “

Verbal exchange in committee

Even before that, the Democrat had engaged in a heated verbal exchange with Republican Byron Donalds, who felt the hearing was a waste of time.

Although he was repeatedly urged by Maloney to back off, he did just the opposite. “You can pound the table all you want, I don’t care,” he said, insisting that with record inflation and record gas prices, politics had more important issues to discuss than what was going on with a football team.

Yet the conditions at the Commanders were far from the only issue raised in the two-and-a-half-hour hearing. A congressman from Ohio wanted to know why the sports blogger David Portnoy, who has been accused of sexual assault, was no longer allowed to attend NFL games.

He was not familiar with the issue, Goodell replied.

The hearing turned downright bizarre when a Texas congressman compared the allegations against the Commanders to Tom Brady’s Deflategate scandal and asked Goodell how the air pressure in the balls could be kept at a constant level in the future.

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3 years ago
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