NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell this morning at the annual owners meeting said that Lisa Friel would be special counsel for investigations, and former ATF Dir Todd Jones will be the league's first disciplinary officer. Both jobs stem from last year's uproar over domestic violence incidents in the league. Friel, a former sex crimes prosecutor in the N.Y. federal court system, has been consulting the league since last fall. Jones will be responsible for handing out punishment for personal conduct violations (Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer). In N.Y., Jamie Schram cites sources as saying that Jones "will leave his ATF post in about two weeks" and will be paid “several million a year” (NYPOST.com, 3/22).
PLAYOFF PAYOFF? PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Mike Florio reported the proposed rule and bylaw changes to be considered at this week's owners meetings in Arizona "don’t include a potential expansion of the postseason from 12 to 14 teams." The NFL is "waiting to tie to larger postseason pool of games to the next sale" of the "Thursday Night Football" package. The NFL is "concerned about how to properly schedule the two extra wild-card games." Steelers President Art Rooney II said, "We’ve always said (playoff expansion) is something that’s worth considering. But the details of it, when would the game get scheduled? Monday night is one of the possibilities, which I don’t think is a great alternative. The idea is OK, it’s just that when you get down to exactly how does it work, it gets a little complicated.” He added, "That’s not ideal for the league to have a team that’s going to play on Monday night and then have to come back the next week and play on a short week, where even on a Saturday is a possibility" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 3/20). Giants President & CEO John Mara said, "It's going to happen at some point, but it just doesn't look like it will happen for (2015)." He added, "One of my concerns about it is when are you going to play those extra games. One of the proposals is to play it on a Monday night. I just don't think playing on a Monday night in January in the northern climates is the ideal way to go. However, Saturday would be ... possible. To me, that is much more palatable" (NJ.com, 3/22).
