Jerry Angelo: NFL hid ‘hundreds and hundreds’ of domestic violence incidents
Jerry Angelo believes the NFL has been hiding a lot of domestic violence incidents
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A now remorseful Jerry Angelo told USA Today that the National Football League hid “hundreds and hundreds” of domestic violence incidents during his 30 years as a front office executive, including 11 seasons as general manager of the Bears.
“I made a mistake,” said Angelo. “I was human. I was a part of it. I’m not proud of it.”
Angelo said that his common reaction to a player being involved in a domestic violence dispute was to simply ask, “Ok, is everyone OK? Yeah. How are they doing? Good.”
“And then we’d just move on,” said Angelo. “We’d move on. We knew it was wrong…for whatever reason, it just kind of got glossed over.”
The comments were made as part of an interview with USA Today regarding how commissioner Roger Goodell handled the situation and if the league was aggressive in handling the investigation involving former Ravens running back Ray Rice.
It was the video of Rice hitting his then-fiancee in an elevator that led to Angelo seeing his past actions in a very difference perspective.
“It was the pictures. It was the video,” said Angelo. “We had never seen that before. I had never seen video on domestic violence. I think that’s what got everyone’s attention.”
The concern of losing players to suspensions and/or possible jail time kept Angelo from going forward to the league regarding domestic violence issues.
“Our business is to win games,” Angelo said. “We’ve got to win games, and the commissioner’s job is to make sure the credibility of the National Football League is held in the highest esteem. But to start with that, you have to know who’s representing the shield.”
“We got our priorities a little out of order,” he added.
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