NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Joins Pat McAfee After Night 1 Of The 2024 Draft

ladies and gentlemen the commissioner of the NFL don't listen to them no Roger shut your mouth I appreciate thank you so much for joining us don't listen to them Ro idiots hey Dar they don't know uh you're our commissioner don't worry about these bums out um okay so my take has always been when you're the Commissioner of a league you're always going to make a decision that's going to inevitably piss off some fan base you notice that yeah yeah yeah I think I think there's been something that has happened but I think what you have done with our league is nothing short of phenomenal so first of all I think all of us would like to say thank you for the direction in which the NFL has gone it's bigger batter than ever we had 275,000 people here yesterday for the draft it wasn't like that before this under your leadership so from us to you we'd like to give you a gift that we know you're a big fan of ladies and gentlemen some peanut M&M for our Commish for our Commish obviously you can take this just why we're on set yep you can take these with you you can take them home I might just I got a gift for you what oh you ready yeah I like that with the 222nd pick in the 2009 NFL Draft oh yeah the Indianapolis Colt select Pat McAfee Hunter West Virginia oh yeah come on there baby good pick I'll pick him up thank you Ro I'm up cuz you got that back right I got it there's your C baby that's real that's awesome I've been keeping that for what is it 15 years you had in your back pocket this whole time this is cool thank you for this okay so on this note the reason why we learned about your peanut &m because the co Draft when you're were sitting in that leather chair and you had your peanut M&M's but if we think about not only battling through that and navigating that but making the draft what it is now and I know this is probably a vision of yours to make it a spectacle but it certainly has become that I mean 275,000 people to anything is absurd let alone just 32 picks being announced on a stage the ratings are going to be bigger than any playoff game that's happening how did you know the draft would be awesome if you traveled it and at what point did you start initiating that and did you see this did you see this happening no you know Pat I don't I I'd be I'd be kidding you if I thought it was going to be as big as it is um the the reality is though we felt like we could be bigger than we were in Radio City but it was a real risk to do it because it was really popular in the media Market we had a we had a great event going there but what happened is Radio City actually put a holiday show in and said you can't have the draft until June wow and that's when we said we're out of here so they Ked you that's when we went on the road okay so I like that you had to adjust yeah no it was well we were we were thinking about it very hard and we really believed it would work and then that just forced the hand and we just said okay we're going on the road we haven't looked back so we went to Chicago the first two years and they did a great job and then obviously Philly and Nashville and I mean Nashville almost became like the gold standard for it all and then what we saw last night here has been fantastic but the cities that you pick is a big deal Tom digs has a question for you yeah I do it feels like you've kind of found your sweet spot in cities to go to these bluecollar cities like Philly Detroit and and Cleveland Kansas City like Nashville Nashville the football F football cities these football fans show up did you found that did you find that these football cities are kind of the perfect location for the draft and Green Bay next year one of the most you know his franchis of all time and then shut up uh I know there's a local there's a local media uh in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania who is trying really really hard for the draft the year after that can we announce right now that the draft is Pittsburg they're in the they're in the mix I'll tell you that in the mix so that may be coming soon so are they selling you just like with Super Bowls these c yeah no the bidding process for this uh actually there's almost as much demand for the draft as there is for the Super Bowl um because so many cities can't host the Super Bowl but they can do the draft but it's getting to the point now where the draft is is it's not in the same league but it's pretty darn close yeah it's huge for the offense for us it's like it saves us we get to talk about what's potentially happening we get to experience it the Fallout the drama it is perfect now what you guys have been able to master I think which every other Sport's trying to do 12 months a year the NFL is conversation and I know that whenever you took over as commissioner allegedly you never said this public public but the way it was understood is like you laid out a plan to the owners about how this where I think the NFL can get to this is where I think our game can get to European expansion obviously that's huge not only games in England but now in Germany I assume you're going to go other places South America this year Brazil yeah now we're in Brazil doing this what's next cuz everything is up and to the right for the NFL ratings money sponsorship eyeballs interest growth like what is next do you have another 10year plan and how do you continue to grow when it seems like everything else plateauing in the world not only Sports World well I think the number one thing is you keep your eye on the game right if the game doesn't stay strong then I think all those things become more challenging for us we really do believe we can be good Global sport so I see us playing uh at least 16 games on the road at some point in time okay and on an international market that may be 10 years out but I see us getting there at some point will a franchise ever happen or a division maybe I think that's beyond 10 years so yeah that's going to be it's got a lot of challenges competitively the logistics I think we can solve the competitive side you get to Sunday night at the end of the regular season you say Okay Seattle you're going to London that's a rough one that's 12 hour flight might as well going to Asia or whatever in the middle of a season and then let alone do you have a home base for workouts and tryouts and sign yeah you could do that and we've talked about that and that could solve that if you put your playoff games in a US market potentially a neutral Market but that's tough right it's a lot yeah and you talked about the game being great and this is my last question for the boys I assume have some as well we know you hate football okay Raj we're getting rid of the hip drop tackle we got we got a new kickoff coming in we have a video of Raj and uh Bill bellich talking that we'll be releasing on Monday where they you guys address everything but for this particular conversation whenever you get the data in analytics and you realize like okay we can make our game safer but keep it explosive is that the where decision- making is coming from and do you hear all the people I don't want to say in like blue collar cities but in football cities and the old school people saying well there's a going to ruin a game like it's not going to be football anymore how much does that weigh into the factor in the conversation and how much is it like we need to get safer so this game can live forever because I assume that's not easy I and I got to tell you Dan Rooney who I was probably uh close to anybody with but and I spoke to him every day but we'd argue every day on this issue cuz he was you know he was more of a purist right and he said this isn't football and you know my argument is it is football it's still a physical game these guys are faster they're more athletic we don't need those shots to the Head what we we need we don't need the the techniques that we've seen that the hip drop yeah or absolutely Jim Harbaugh did that to me in the hallway at the annual meetings because as soon as we heard about it every former football player is like hip drop tackle we don't even get taught that like nobody is taught like don't hip drop tackle and then I saw Harbaugh Jim in the hall and I was like what are your thoughts old school football guy on the hip drop tackle being taken out of there he gu needed to happen and then he demonstrated to me what it was he like grabbed on my back and then he threw his he's huge he's a big dude threw his body on the back of my legs and he was like we just need to eliminate that is that and that's like and it's not that many plays okay and and we're also seeing it start to happen in college football we saw down in Florida State this year and you you not only are there more injuries there more severe injuries guys are out for a season maybe in a career so they lead to very significant injuries so and it's it doesn't happen that often and we got to coach it out we got to educate it out but we may have to officiate it or find it out yeah so probably find it out right that's everybody's kind of understand I think in the initial phase it's going to you know it's an adjustment for everybody right the coaches the players the officials all of us are going to have to adjust to it a little bit but that's always the way it works do you guys think about like if one of those gets called in the fourth quarter for Kansas City let's say for Kansas City man the out you know it's going to be as loud as hell that that's a judgment call it wasn't called earlier it was a fine this time don't you think you're you're kind of adding to potential I don't want to say discrepancies but at least a little bit of fodder for these people that'll get very loud about something I think the way we'll deal with it with the officials is if it's very clear and obvious got it you should throw it if it's if it's on the edge that's not what we're looking for cuz they're still training their eyes too uh and so we're we're looking at that we can deal with it as fines and hopefully that'll get it out out of the game very quickly also just like you guys did with the uh quarterback like early in the season it was like or the shots to the Head early in the season was like boom boom boom boom and we're all bitching like nope this isn't football anymore what are we doing body weight on the quarterback was another one tough you don't hear about it much anymore who were in The in these rooms when these rules are coming like are they players former players like who exactly who who were in these rooms in the rooms back inul guys like tro so I mean the vast majority of our guys are players they played a lot of years we got I think last time I looked when we had a player come in it was over a 100 years experience sitting in the room with no I heard there's no football guys in I'm not putting myself in there yeah yeah hey Conor's got a question for you yeah commission first I want to thank you on behalf of everyone uh for taking Christmas day uh H yeah can acknowledge that Christmas and the presents will be so much better with some football on the TV at what point did you decide like hey I get it Adam Silver did you call him did you say sorry but this is ours now we are taking Christmas from you or what was that conversation and when did you know like yeah we have to play games on Christmas every year and Black Friday now has a game yep no I think we've looked for those opportunities where we can create an event out of it and you know holidays are that's that's what we do Thanksgiving has been our biggest day of football for a year Detroit these guys watching team lose every year and they help Crea but and you know we saw it I think we averaged 30 million people for the Christmas games over the last four or five years so for us that's where our fans are so I don't ask permission for that we go where the fans are no we're going to go and we're going to find a way to to to satisfy that it was a little more challenging this year with the Wednesday but what we what we proven here we can do the Sunday to Thursdays no Health consequences whatsoever the data does not show that so Wednesday Saturday works so we're going to have four teams playing on Saturday we'll mix them up and play them again on Christmas day okay so I have a question about games we want from 16 to 17 games and we were only on the internet when this happened um so I don't know if it made it to your office or not soon as it happened I was like okay this is a clear opening to 18 games and then if you add an extra bye in there which I don't know if that's been discussed now we got 20 weeks 20 Prime Time games let alone whatever other days we're going to now the NFL PA is always going to fight against having more games is there a plan to continue to expand because 17 games feels good now like at the beginning I think a lot of players and I don't want to talk for in the locker room there's probably a lot of offense alignment and things like that are telling me to shut the hell up but as as fans it's like 17 games has just become like status quo is there a thought of adding another one maybe adding another bye so we can get more exposure more TV deals or or we good at 17 right now well I I think we're good at 17 now but listen we're looking at how we continue I'm not a fan of the preseason I I don't think we need waste of time right and energy I just I don't buy it and I don't think these guys like it either well they have to full spend full price for the tickets for those games no they're actually discounted now so thank you for we got that our commission that's our commission thank you Comm but the reality is you know I I think I'd rather replace a preseason game with a regular season any day that that's just picking quality right so if we get if we got to 18 and two that's not an unreasonable thing the other thing it does which I thought you were going to is that ends up on President's Day weekend which is a 3-day weekend which makes the Sunday night and then you have Monday off so that's wow now now we're now we're cooking now we're cooking you talk to the president about having the Monday after Super Bowl off too yeah we saw you at that oversight committee when uh I was really excited for you to get in there because yeah it was fun I yeah I called you good one guy one guy called you good but I I've said this for a long time it's very real you're one of the greatest speakers orators that has ever existed and I I figured that out whenever you had to come to all the rooms all the teams right before the lockout and you stood I remember that with Jeff Saturday yeah yeah yeah yeah that was a hot room that room gotot was a hot room that was a very hot room yeah and you handled it though like and then we walked out of there and I'm like damn that guy's one of the greatest that guy's one of the greatest speakers I've ever heard my entire life like somehow put the fire out and then we watch you do it why do you think like like commissioner is the job that you were meant for why do you think you've done the job that you've done now not every decision has been perfect I assume you look back and there's some stuff where you're like made a mistake here misjudged this should have done different you're not going to be perfect but why do you think you've had the success that you've had at the commissioner role and what is day-to-day for you just trying to figure out how we continue to grow the game listen I I think the first thing that I've always had was a a true understanding of what the commissioner's role was because Pete Rosell was really my mentor I mean at the end of the day that's why I got in the business and I think he's the greatest commissioner there's ever been in sports but it's also you got to have that passion for the game and you got to have you got to feel like that's that's family like I've got to do everything I can to make the game the best for these guys our partners and that's the starting point so every one of your decisions is in the best long-term interest of the NFL um the second thing the challenges is that what you asked yeah um you know I think the challenges for us as dealing with success I I said that since I became commissioner when I went in for I guess my 15minute conversation with the owners before they selected commissioner I said the biggest challenge is you get complacent and you start thinking that success is going to continue because you've got to stay ahead of things you got to keep getting better you got to keep looking for new things to do and that includes making the game safe that Mak it includes going International includes looking at new at new platforms uh it it looks includes trying to look at a better season structure where you're giving them better quality rather than lesser quality it you've done a fantastic job I mean they'll boo you everybody's going to that's all fun though yeah yeah funny [Applause] game whenever so whenever we say that you have to answer to 31 billionaires how accurate is that 32 well you not cting Green Bay yeah okay cuz I doesn't count Big Pop there's a Green Bay p he did yeah no no that was yeah yeah um see that know I don't actually think that way I actually think I answer to them I think I answer to um to the Media Partners I think I answer the players I think I I answered the owners too the the idea for me is to try to keep everyone happy I always say that my biggest job is not to piss off more than 24 owners in a given deck go quick vote Everything Changes uh speaking of voting I if you're on this set and You' like full-time refs say I and not on the set they jumped in they jumped in okay so here so Bill and I talked about this yesterday I'm excited you Monday we'll release and I talked about yesterday and um we did a little bit of that right before Co and stopped it during Co just because of the circumstances and we didn't see a difference doesn't mean that we did it right so we we still look at it but but I'm also sitting back and I'm watching a lot of playoff basketball hockey I'm hearing a lot about officials and all those guys are full-time and the only my only point to that is this is a human game it's a fast game there they're they're people like you and I they make mistakes got it for us the way to correct it is to try to add technology and so replay assist is something we're bringing even further in this year and by the way coach belich was one of the biggest proponent he's he's got another one what you he he'll tell you on the show but he says it every year and I think we're going gradually more comfortable with that to allow the officials more information when they make the decision yeah we've heard like after further discussion by refs on the field last year more that's the beam down yeah that could be a a a pool but more than likely someone's in his ear okay so you see the XFL do that and other leagues do that and then you think you're a little bit maybe it's a little bit of a precedent type thing or how do we ease into that I no I didn't see that that's something we been doing in the last several years because there were always very strict rules with replay we always wanted to be avoiding subjective calls it had to be an objective call we've now moved a little bit further with that but it was really more they wanted the call to be made by the referee on the field and it still is but we're giving the referee more input assistance yeah a little bit more help whether it's a replay Fisher or whether it's somebody in New York that's looking down and says I saw that his foot's out of bound at the three got and you missed it the idea is here to be consistent and efficieny and not and avoid those errors that are gamechanging right you effici is part of the game well the issue is like I see it in 8k at my house I'm seeing it in an 8K in super slow motion in the ref wasn't even allowed to look up at the Jumbotron for certain times like that's correct yeah they weren't even allowed to see it so the entire Stadium of 70,000 people is watching a zoomed in mistake that is in there so I'm happy that you guys are embracing technology because I think you know if you use it as a tag team partner as a opposed to it's trying to correct you the game's going to get better and better I do appreciate you but you also point out one other thing which technology we see more today than we could see I mean you go back and look at a film 20 years ago AJ fil 10 years ago looks like you're it's much different classic how much louder has it gotten I guess the gripes with the ref or lack of full-time ref with the growth of sports betting because obviously sports betting people talking about the script Taylor Swift showing up the game things happen how much louder has it gotten in your office uh with the grow for that I I I haven't felt that at all uh I I think for us it's always just constantly what it is we need to do to make the game better obviously when you have sports betting that's legalized it was illegal at the time so we still protected it Integrity we didn't support making it legal the Supreme Court made the decision we've got to adjust to that and when we did you do have to be partnering with some of these partners because they actually give us access to information that can detect something before really becomes a problem and so we get a lot of information by being involved there people think that's you know um conflicting with our previous position but we just have to adjust to whatever the law is that's the way it works anytime though like the NBA has had to deal with it with one of their refs Tim Don I think like 10 years ago and then uh jont Porter just happened uh just a couple weeks ago that ruins it for all of us I think like us as former players the same thing whenever you uh gave a season long ban to Calvin Ridley I think there's a lot of people comparing that to like other punishments that have taken place it's like that one everybody that's involved with football understands if we mess this up it messes the whole the Integrity of the game cannot ever be questioned even though it always will be because of the outcomes of sport and why sport is so awesome is because anything can happen but like if there's any proven like that it can ruin everything and obviously we all understand that without question if people think there's an influence on the game other than the players on that field we're in trouble well Taylor Swift we know yeah yeah of course that's a different kind of influence how about Hey listen a lot of jokes are made Taylor yeah you can't you can't you can't yeah you're going to be a part of an album do it get get get a little louder she is going to cook you I like to be known you had to and obviously the internet talked about your reaction to Taylor Swift all of a sudden becoming a part of the NFL family oh yeah also on the riging Super Bowl champions one of the most famous players we have and somehow in a suite that has four cameras on it every single Prime Time game and now a demographic got exposed to football I saw a lot of tweets from like Dad saying my daughter watched more NFL football with me this weekend than she ever had because Taylor Swift a lot of the internet was saying Roger Goodell is sitting at home through the moon about this well they thought it was part of the script yes right well then you wouldn't talk to her then you want talk to her it is there it is but as that's happening you think to yourself like obviously as a commissioner of League this is good for the league that the biggest super star on Earth right now is interested but when it starts happening and you start hearing the noise what is the reaction from you guys at the office and are is it like we're trying not to mess this up we don't want to be too much we don't want to be like what is the the NFL stance on it cuz she's selling out every Stadium no and and listen there's some things you can control or not control but listen anybody who's interested in the NFL I'm that's good for me and and good for everybody involved with the NFL you get somebody with the kind of exposure in the following like Taylor Swift who does love football i' I've known her for for 15 years I first met her in New Orleans she loves the game and so that's great for us right um take the relationship out of it which if they're happy for yeah hey wake up I don't know if you heard the songs she's sang a couple songs about them she feels so high school about tra it's great it's great it's great song Connor's got a question for you Commish yeah Commish obviously right now there's kind of this transition period with college football and nil and how much that is changing kind of the landscape of everything when it comes to college Athletics have you seen any sort of change at least in the players that have come through in recent years in comparison to previous ones just because of the fact that they are coming to the NFL with money you know yesterday Pat mentioned you know these college guys for the first time are getting time and money once they get to the NFL and now it's kind of like well they already have the money now now they're just getting a lot of more free time have you seen anything like that is that something that you know the one thing that uh it was really interesting to me is because we've always held very strongly to our eligibility rule so you have to be at least 3 years out of high school um and what get in the last 3 years we've seen that go from about 110 back down to about 788 80 somewhere in that area and the reality is guys are staying in college football because they're getting paid sure and so I don't think that's a bad thing because they're still in the college program I'm a big believer in college football I love it I watch it all day but I also think they make stars for our players they give them that platform they get them ready to play the professional game both physically mentally and otherwise and so I I'm I think it works on the other hand we always look at what does this mean to us what ultimately is this going to mean to the game of professional football we work really closely with college football I'm meeting with them in the next week we want to try to help we want to try to deal are you going to take them in are you going to bundle them no I don't see I don't see I don't see that I I really don't see that at least today but not I don't see that in the future so whenever we're talking about the college football and I've gotten baptized in it with college game day they've just dropped me right into college football bad decision a lot of the old whites hated me in the Southeast people hated me why is this doofus in our game but I've got to learn a lot about it a lot a lot about it and it's like all the problems that are currently happening in this transition ERA with no guard rails on the nil there's no free agency period there's no actual contract structure so some of these players are signing deals that are giving up like 25% of future earnings like it's kind of all over the place there's so many issues with it though like there's only a couple people that could probably F you're one of them so if you got time why don't you do that why don't you go why don't you go take care of college football part time joh yeah exactly why don't you go do that that'd be great but it it has served as a minor league to the NFL for a very long time so obviously you have the importance with each other but like there's so many questions down there do they ask you about any of this stuff yeah and we we talk a lot about I mean CO's a great example everything we were doing Co we shared with college football so I was talking to conference Commissioners and talk telling what we would do we shared our medical protocols we found a way to get through that and try to help you know the game of football overall and we did that with other leagues too to be honest with you we all sort of shared information but I think that's true in this case the problem with it is who's in control is it NCA or is it the conferences and how they're moving around so for us I don't know enough about it right now but if anybody asks us for help we're going to try to do our best they need you so I hope that happens ASAP and as we roll into round two of the 2024 NFL draft let's look back on what happened in round one makea wish kid oh that was good yes uh Justin L did I pronounce that right L I think it's right Le he he does obviously he calls Xavier worthy uh getting drafted to the chiefs with a trade with the Buffalo Bills and it's a magical night you do a lot of this we I don't think I remembered how many different high school athletes were out here I think it was firefighters out here you got a make a wish kid out here you're doing a lot of good for the community but immediately after that I guess you facetimed Andy Reid as well and there was a yeah I didn't yeah I yeah you set him up let's go Raj look at the commissioner's a human I didn't know that was the case that's a sweet thing that's a sweet night well coach is a great guy and you know that was that was that that uh he's just a great kid and it's a great story his father and son and all the things they've been through so make a wish is a great program for us but that was a chance I knew Andy would grasp it and he he he responded right away that's beautiful Hey whenever you say the Atlanta Falcons take Michael penck Jr while you're it's coming out of your mouth you're like well the world's about to explode right now is that yeah you understand that no when it was funny when I got the card I looked down at and I go wow this will get a reaction speaking of a reaction you got picked up last night uh what recent back surgery you we okay I did yeah no it wasn't too bad we handling big bumps still we practice we run into to walls before this how do we uh I actually had a guy from NFL films he's about 6'4 about 260 I said just pick me up once and just let me see how it goes and that Just Let Me Down Easy but he he was great that's a great kid and you know what it is it's it's just a pure emotion and that's by the way I probably had back surgery because of all the other draft Christian you and Christian Christian Christian I could have died we're happy you didn't we're happy you didn't and we're thankful you stopped by I used to say you were scared to come on the show you know because we'll ask you real questions but what I should have realized is just like in that team meeting room yeah rap before the lockout there's no such thing as a tough question Roger gell nope you are the man to be guiding our league we're very lucky and thankful can't wait to see what you do next and can't wait to see how you screw over every fan base can't wait to see how you do that we appreciate the hell out of you ladies and gentlemen the commissioner of the NFL can I take my m& all peanut m& peanut Roger get down thank you thank you man thank you man thank you thank you appreciate thanks what a legend great this guy's this guy's like shaping the biggest I'm talking about you on your way out yeah you don't want your peanut M&M huh I'm going to take all right I appreciate C up here if you can make it warmer I know you got control of the weather I'm press your short seup well I didn't pack for it you know it's April I get plan for this wind r you're the man Ro thank you buddy unbelievable all right from Roger Goodell to Dan rovski [Music]

Channel: The Pat McAfee Show

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Keywords: pat mcafee, podcast, sports, nfl, ncaa, football, for the brand, punter, kicker, pat mcafee show, american football, nfl news, pat mcafee clips, pat mcafee reacts, pat mcafee highlights, pat mcafee live, pat mcafee show live, pat mcafee podcast, the pat mcafee show, McAfeeESPN2023, roger goodell, roger goodell 2024 draft, roger goodell picked up, roger goodell detroit lions, roger goodell pat mcafee, roger goodell draft pick, roger goodell new heights

Id: WXVWYplb-Dg

Length: 28min 43sec (1723 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024