FanSided.com’s Michael Collins had an opportunity for an exclusive interview with Chris Valletta about Roger Goodell and NFL policy
It’s easy to wonder about the sincerity of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell when you hear him speak on the subject of NFL players and their conduct off the field.
The issues of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual misconduct and other problems that are plaguing the league right now are met with what would seem to be canned, public relations team-generated responses – and that’s simply not good enough when it comes to issues like these.
The admission that problems exist, and the vow to fix them without being able to give even the broadest of strokes on how they will be addressed seems to be nothing but providing lip service to issues that deserve swift and decisive action.
Perhaps what’s going on behind the scenes, out of the public eye, resembles more of what a leader the caliber of Roger Goodell is capable of doing. And to that point, five former NFL players were invited to meet with Goodell on Oct. 1 of this year to talk about the league’s conduct problems.
One of those players, Chris Valletta, who spent two years in the NFL , was deeply concerned and very interested in what the commissioner had to say on the subject of the league’s personal conduct policy, and what needed to change to help mend the damage that has been done.
“When we went in, the goal was to address the personal conduct policy and get ahead of future issues that might arise and to make significant changes,” Valletta told me in an interview over the weekend. “Going into the meeting I wasn’t very sure what to expect of Roger Goodell, other than just what I’ve seen on television and what I’ve heard from the people I know.”
Pausing thoughtfully for a moment, Valletta continued.
“I would say that coming out of the meeting I am convinced there is no one better to serve in that position, and to lead the NFL through this time. He was so engaged, he was so, just, present in this meeting, He discussed every topic we brought up, he debated every topic, he agreed to disagree. He took 10 pages front and back of notes, he just didn’t stop writing.
“I’ve been with a few big-hitters in my time, and he’s one of them, and I’ve never seen somebody so engaged in a meeting.“
Former NFL players Cris Carter, Bart Oates, Hugh Douglas and Christian Peter, who had some issues with domestic violence as a rookie with the New England Patriots, joined Valletta in the meeting.
Also part of the meeting with the players were NFL executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, and Lisa Friel, who formerly was in charge of sex crimes prosecution in the New York City District Attorney’s Office, and now serves as a special advisor to Goodell.
I asked Valletta how big of a task it would be to overhaul the leagues personal conduct policy, or if this was going to just going to take making players more aware of what was included inside the current policy.
“We told Goodell, drop the hammer. Drop the hammer on these guys” – Chris Valletta
“If you look at the personal conduct policy in the NFL — and every employee has to sign it — it is just riddled with grey,” he said. “It is very subjective, quite honestly.
“It basically states that you should be held to the highest standards, and if you are convicted of a criminal activity, you will be disciplined. It’s really only about two pages long, and typically it’s buried inside of the contracts that every player signs, and the employment agreement that every employee signs.”
Valletta said that’s part of the problem, that really the players just “don’t read it” and just sign whatever their agents tell them to sign.
So what kind of changes might we expect, will this be a wholesale rewriting of the personal conduct code, and is Roger Goodell ready to take that type of action to begin to gain control of a growing problem?
“We’ve got to eliminate the grey,” Valletta stated emphatically. “Which means getting a lot more specificity in it as it related to specific criminal activities, and let everyone know who signs it that this is the result of any ill-advised action that you might take as an employee of the NFL.”
One way of doing this type of restructuring would be to use a company who has a detailed and successful code of conduct in place, and it might surprise you where the members of this meeting looked in that regard.
“We looked at benchmarking other companies,” Valletta told me. “And I know that Goodell and the NFL have looked into what the military does as an option of how to structure the personal conduct policy. “
I guess if you are looking for a crystal clear, no-nonsense, definitive policy about discipline, the military is about as good as you’ll find. One thing is for certain, and that’s any ambiguity about what the punishment is to be for specific violations has to be uniform, so as to avoid complete administrative meltdowns as were seen in the Ray Rice case.
But how would that be received by the players, and in particular by their representation in the NFL Players Association?
“I expect that there will be some pushback from the NFLPA, and those who aren’t happy with the policies,” Valletta said. “Not everyone is going to be happy with the policies. The majority will be.
“But I will tell you this,” he continued. “Of the five former players that were in the room…overwhelmingly it was unanimous that more discipline is needed in the NFL.”
But making the policies more specific and less generic is only part of the problem. There are ongoing issues with how policies are administered, and how players are reviewed and judged, with nearly all of that power falling on the commissioner.
This has caused more that one firefight between Goodell and the players in some past cases (the New Orleans Saints “bountygate” scandal leaps to mind), and if a new personal conduct code is going to be enforced, it’s a sure thing the players are going to want to know how it will be done and who will be their judge and jury.
“One of the things you’re going to see is probably an update to how the judging, the evaluation, and the disciplinary action are handled,” Valletta said of Goodell’s current role in discipline. “Meaning, right now Goodell is judge, jury and executioner, and that’s an issue.”
Valletta said that he feels the commissioner knows that needs to be addressed, and that ideas including a third party, a panel of internal NFL employees, and other options were put on the table, but that in some form or fashion, commissioner Goodell has to become part of the process.
“Everyone agreed that the buck should stop with [Goodell],” he said.
And when he said everything was on the table, that was no exaggeration. There were discussions of taking away draft picks from teams, fining owners, and whatever steps it took to change the culture in the league.
But there was a third point to this restructuring of the personal conduct code that Valletta was particularly passionate about, and it more addresses the long-term, and how players will view the league of which they are a part of in future years.
“The first two [points] are definite short term adjustments that will benefit for the long term,” Valletta said, “But to address one of the issues that you brought up is how will this impact the future of the league, future draft picks, and what does this do down the line?”
Valletta’s answer is quite simple. And if he used the following word once in our interview, he used it at least 20 times.
“The NFL needs a credo,” he said, expanding further on the idea. “A credo is a statement of belief of how you get to where you want to be…and why you’re doing it.
“When you’re building a credo, you’re essentially making a statement of belief of who are we? Who do we want to be? Who do we want to become? What impact do we want to have outside of this game? You ask questions like that, and then you start to build a new culture within the NFL.”
It is Valletta’s hope that Goodell and the league can change the conversation from growing the business, bringing in more sponsors and expanding licensing, to what the NFL can be from a cultural and societal impact so as to affect changes in generations of youth who look to join the league.
“It needs to be written in stone,” Valletta authoritatively stated. “And I mean that literally. If you go into the headquarters of some of the biggest corporations in the world…and you go in the main lobby, they have their company credo carved in granite, and every single decision the company makes is measured against the credo.
“What gets measured, gets done.”
But we’re talking about the NFL here, a league that is as progressive as any company in the world in some respects, but when it comes to instituting change within the ranks of the players, they seem to move a less than a snail’s pace.
How can these major changes to a personal conduct code, and to revamping the image of the league and redefining the direction and impact it has become reality, and how soon can it reasonably happen?
Valletta’s answer was succinct to say the least.
“We told Goodell, drop the hammer. Drop the hammer on these guys,” he repeated. “If somebody screws up, drop the hammer. That involves taking the game away. That involves taking money away. These are significant things – and [Goodell] agreed.
“In the the discussion [Goodell] has been having not only with players and coaches, but with college coaches and with everyone else involved, they’ve all said the same thing – we need more discipline. So you’re going to see a lot more, and I think his plan is to get it all in place before the Super Bowl.”
So if you are among the many who believe that Roger Goodell’s disciplinary policies have been misdirected and overly concerned with such relatively minor offenses as end zone celebrations and dress codes, it would seem a new day is hopefully about to dawn, and the “law and order” commissioner that we were led to believe was taking charge in 2006 may finally make an appearance.
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