The NFL is moving Commissioner Roger Goodell's annual press conference from Friday to Wednesday, a major break with the tradition of Super Bowl week. The move could mean fewer reporters and owners attend, as many have not arrived by mid-week. The event has served as a high-profile meeting place, attended by almost everyone connected at the highest levels to the league. Whether they will now come to Houston 48 hours earlier is uncertain, so the shift could depress the significance of the event, which ESPN and NFL Network air live. “Our overall thinking is by Friday people are really focused on the game,” said NFL Exec VP/Communications Joe Lockhart. On Friday, the league will instead host a forum where fans, not reporters, can ask questions of Goodell (Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer). Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio notes Super Bowl week is "about everything but the game, especially at the media center." Florio: "All the radio stations are there, TV stations are there. There are former players, current players all over the place." He said holding the commissioner's press conference on a Friday is "tradition, and it is typically attended very, very heavily." Florio: "They're moving it to Wednesday because they want to do it on a day when there are less people there and therefore less chance of some crazy screwball question that’s going to make the commissioner look bad. I really do believe that this move is all about trying to engineer a more favorable forum for the commissioner for his press conference” ("PFT," NBCSN, 1/20).
