The Season with Peter SchragerThe Season with Peter Schrager: Roger Goodell
Commissioner Roger Goodell joined Peter and his "Good Morning Football" castmates for a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday.
The Season with Peter Schreeger is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, Everybody, and Welcome to the Season with Peter Schreger. We have another episode on our feed this week and that's a long, extensive, in depth interview with Michael Vick.
Vic is incredible in our sit down.
I work with Michael on the weekends on Fox NFL Kickoff, but this season was kicked off with a premiere of a movie that he's been working on for three years as a producer, called The Evolution of the Black Quarterback. We get into that, we get into a sit down he just had with Jayden Daniels that's going to air on the Fox pregame shows this weekend, and we go down memory lane. Michael Vick in Atlanta early two thousands outcast is on the scene, Ludacris is on the scene.
Two Chains is just.
Coming out, and where Michael Vick fit in to the cultural landscape there in Atlanta during that time and is the introspective And he's interesting in the response and that he felt such a burden and such a responsibility that.
You know, there was pressure. It wasn't like he could enjoy it.
It was pressure that with all that was happening in Atlanta as such a cultural touch point, he knew it was on him to kind of make sure that he brought his best and he brought the Falcons to some glory, and they did. They had some very good years during those times. Vick's amazing. I would really urge you to listen to that. This week on Good Morning Football. I was in La on Monday and Tuesday, and on Tuesday with a very special guest, the Commissioner of the NFL, mister Roger Goodell. And now the history of Goodell and Good Morning Football is rich and deep.
We always have him on at least twice a season.
He comes in and it is the NFL's network, so he can come in and it's his network in a way, and we come in, but we do not get questions scripted for us. We are told to ask whatever we want and to you know, present him any questions that are currently of mind, but also that might be long term thinking. And oftentimes these interviews with us make news. We have that green light to ask him questions. And we just got wrapped with an episode on Tuesday in which Goodell sat with us for about fifteen minutes.
I thought it was pretty insightful.
I wanted to bring that interview over to this feed so our listeners to the pod can listen to the sit down if you didn't catch it on Good Morning Football.
The interviewers and the voices that you hear are myself. I'm the one who brings him in and asks the first question about the resurgence of the DC commanders, and I didn't know this. Roger grew up in the DC area. Of course, his.
Father was in government, so he grew up in DC, so he has kind of a cool introspective response on that. The other voice you'll hear is Jamie Erdall, who's one of the hosts of Good Morning Football, Michael Robinson, who is a former player and also an NFL Network colleague, and Kyle Brandt, who was beaming in from New York City asking some pretty good questions to Goodell as well. So, with no further ado, here's a little bonus episode. Here's Roger Goodell on Good Morning Football on Tuesday.
We're excited here in our LA studios and we have a very special guest, a gentleman, the Commissioner of the National Football League, mister Roger gudell.
Y, welcome, thank you, grilled to be here.
What brings you to Los Angeles?
You guys right, yeah this I was out in San Francisco on Sunday, had some meetings Superior yesterday and stayed to be with you guys.
Awesome.
Our show is now coast to coast, so we figured we hit a couple of different markets here and hit you with some questions.
If you don't mind us just popping you. Is this a test?
This is a test.
I would like to start in the Nation's Capital. I think the best story one month into the season is this Washington Commander's franchise and this young Rokie quarterback and what he's brought.
You have been with the league.
For many years, you were a historian of the game. To see that market so enthused right now and energized with what Jaden and also the new coaching staff an ownership group has brought. What's it like having the Commanders being on top of the NFC East and really having the Nation's Capital is one of the top teams.
Well, like the way you say historian, that means I've been here a long time, so I've seen this history but the reality is, you know, I also grew up in Washington and I know what that franchise means to that community. It really does, and I think to see that excitement start coming back. You can see they're on the right path. Got a great young quarterback, DQ is doing great. I just think that team is on the rise and it's going to be fun for the league because you know, the nation's capital, that's where it's at, and I think it'll be fun for the league to have them back.
Very cool.
You probably couldn't be more thrilled with how the International Series started in Brazil, but also what we have coming into this weekend an undefeated Vikings team and Aaron Rodgers led Jets team, but then the irony that Sam Darnold is quarterbacking the Vikings. Do you follow stories like this and when guys just kind of really hit a lull but then the resurgence within the league.
Yeah, to me, it's part of what makes our game so much fun is to see kids that you know, maybe don't have a good start at one team and they move off. I think he's now on his FOURT team, I believe, and you know, to see him get in the right system. And I really give a lot of credit to Kevin. And you know, the GM crazy is just you know, to get the right kind of guy to fit their system. He's getting the most out of them. Got great teammates. It's always great to throw to JJ, but you know you've got to give him credit to you know, his determination to get back in there and say I can do this. And when you see someone try to overcome that and try to build on the failures he may have had, that's just something you take your hat off to.
You got ratings going crazy, man, you know, you got streaming, you got you know, all the different platforms. Just what excites you about the National Football League right now? Just in general? Man, with all the ever changing media platforms.
Well, I think all that is another opportunity for us. I mean, I think we have the greatest content in the world. I mean, everybody wants to see every aspect of the NFL. They want to see our players. I want to see our coaches. I want to see the teams. They want to see Kyle. I see you in the background there, Caud they do.
He's like Oz back there, honestly, Like sometimes you see his body language.
I'm like Oh God, what's.
Wrong, Commissioner.
Come over to this, this large Orrellian monitor that we have there in that beautiful set the Roger.
I'm in New York City.
I'm in our Good Morning Football is Lower West Side condo, of course, home of the league headquarters where your office is. And you know what, we do really well here at the NFL. We're really good at branding, and I like that we branded the new kickoff rule the dynamic kickoff, and it really feels that way. We're a month into it. What do you think about the early returns of the dynamic kickoff?
You know, we always said this is going to be a working progress. I guess if I had to grade it, I'd say it's an incomplete right now, and only in this sense. We wanted to bring back more returns, but we wanted to do it safely. So we have more returns. I think we had an eighty five percent increase in returns. That'll give us more data to find out is it working. Are we seeing the safety level go back to the same safety levels we see at the line of scrimmage plays So far that looks pretty good, but it's really early to tell, and there's really not enough data yet. I think it's going to come out where we've brought the safety back into that play, and then I think we'll have to make a few changes on the kickoff that will I think lead to a lot more kickoff returns. I think the.
Back moving it up a little bit.
Maybe I could do the touchback and move it to thirty five. You know, I think that would be a game changer right away. Yeah, I think that everything. I've talked to the coaches and as you know, our special teams coaches are looking at this. I've talked to some of them and I think there will be a change, whether we make it immediate after the season. We're going to have a competition committee in the next week.
So Jamie's headed to London this afternoon. You'll probably be there at some point, I imagine for.
The next week, next following week.
Yep.
What other big league initiative is the flag football and something that we have seen explode and you know, we've all got kids and they're all playing flag football. The sky is the limit, obviously, How does the NFL play a role in kind of curating and guiding this thing to this amazing youth sport and how it can lead to more fans and of course more players at the next level.
Well, our international team and all our clubs have really done a great job, you know they Troy Vincent back in New York and Peter O'Reilly runs international and all our events. The idea here is to give kids an opportunity to play. And I'm what I'm most excited about is young women playing the game. I see it in was with Steve Young last year and he brought his entire team up, thirty young women coach the flag football too, and two of his daughters are on the team. This is awesome And it was just to see their confidence and the empowerment that gave them to say we're playing and they were wonderful young women and it was just great to see so and Steve, as a coach, said, I fell back in love with the game by coaching these young women. So I think that's the thing we're trying to share with people, the joy of playing this game, all the values of playing this game. You know, what it takes to be on a team that you know is trying to accomplish something bigger than themselves. I think young women and young boys are learning those lessons, and I think that's great and it's just another funnel to get them into the game, either as tackle players at some point in time or to move on and take another role.
We've had fun with the Olympics in twenty twenty eight in Los Angeles, and I don't know if the NFL players are involved, and I don't think we're there yet, but the fact that it's an Olympics sport is a huge milestone as well.
It's a huge milestone, and I think doing that on an international basis, Listen, that's the pin of sports on an international basis. So we're really looking forward to that, whether players are in it from the NFL level or whether we're going to have great athletes out there, and it's gonna be a lot of fun.
I was going to ask about something that is very jarring for us to see sometimes during the week, which is the turn of Bill Belichick's personality in the media. Is very concerning to me.
I don't understand it.
Were you prepared for this version of Bill Belichick? Knowing him for I just made you very nervous with saying the word.
Jar What I wanted you know, if you're if you ever sit around with Bill and you talk football. That's where he is, I'm sure in front of the camera, and we all know it's a little bit different. But when you get him back and you talk to him about the game of football, it really you see the joy he has in this game and the passion and the historical perspective to it. He's he's a he's just such a student of the game. And you know, since I lost John Madden, who has played an incredible role to be brought that perspective. He saw everything on the field, and he looked at tape and he was he was Bills in a lot of ways filled that role. He's been someone that if you can call and you can have you consult when he studied, well, he's down in an NFL film all day, so I figured I'd get a free call. But he really, he really has a good feel for the game and it's something that can help us.
It's been said that Belichick kept a mattress in his office in New England. Does he have one at films?
You know, I haven't checked that one because it will have to charge him a little different. So if he's stayed.
Overnight, that's good point Roger.
We remember when the first London game was played and it felt really like history. It was really really special, and now it's this is what we do. There's multiple countries, multiple continents. Can you give us a taste of the future of where this might go? I know that Peter is part of an investment group that's trying to build a stadium in Bora Bora, But short of that working, is there.
Anywhere we might land as a league?
Like, what's the sure of this?
We're not going to take Peter's road map to the next future marching market. They love football there, you know, I do, uh, And so my perspective goes back to the nineties and being in both you know, when we went to Japan and we went to Berlin and what you saw was fans that really didn't understand the game. Now you go over to London and it's you know, you have a hard time telling you whether you're in London or whether you're in the Middle Lands or you know, it's just the fans there are sophisticated. They understand the game, they appreciate the game, And for me, that's what I think gives us so much confidence that our game can be a global game, and when we were down in Brazil a few weeks ago, it was just it was the same thing, you know, just a lot of enthusiasm, excitement over the game, and I believe great potential. So we'll be back there. I'm sure we're going to continue to grow. I think we'll end up going to sixteen games at some point in time, and the owners have already authorized us to go to eight. But I'm confident, particularly if we can do the restructuring of the season, that we would get to sixteen at that point.
I have to imagine you. I've been thinking about that having a full slate in Europe. Do you have an advance necessarily Europe?
We got a rest big in the world.
Yes, internationally, sixteen games internationally.
My mistake.
Do you have people that do this, like scouting years in advance of just the logistics to answer questions that teams might have. If you're the forty nine ers and you're being asked to do X, Y and Z, you want to probably have all of the solutions before teams come to you with concern.
Yeah, you're absolutely right, James, and the answer is yes. I mean, we're already looking at several markets. We don't have Peter's list a bit, but we do have a lot of markets that are interested in the game. But we have to go do the work because one of the things that we do, particularly with Brazil, it was a key factor for us. You want the teams to feel like it was not disruptive to the season that it you know, they went that they loved the trip. I went to Jordan Malatta because that, to me, that was the best one. Right, How was the trip? How is a plane? You know, everything was great and you know, the coaches were good, the players were great. Everybody felt like this was a great trip. It was not disruptive that they were able to prepare properly when they got back. I went back and checked afterwards. Everyone recovered really well. So and that's an eleven hour trip for these guys. So when you see that we learned something from every one of the games and say, okay, what can we do next ultimately and how do we continue to expand this? But I do think we can do this. I think the scheduling, you know, we may have to make changes to that in some ways, probably roster sizes, do some other things, but I do think it's something we'll do more.
Real quick super Bowls in New Orleans.
We've got a few months to get there. What's one thing you're looking to see between now and that day where we get out?
Well, you know, there's so much. I keep reminding myself. We're just centering eight week five here at this point, and there's so much and there's so many changes between now and then, but it also goes really fast. And you know, no one loves football more than I do, so I love watching everything I can. I'm looking forward to go over to the international Games. I'm really looking forward to that run up to the playoffs. Super Bowl time is just a blasphemy. So I'm I must.
Earliest New Orleans Super Bowl memory? What do you have?
What sticks out?
Madden? I'll tell you what it is.
It earlier than that.
It was nineteen eighty six. I was Pete Roselle's driver. This is incredible. So, okay, it was the best thing of the Bears Patriots Bears Patriots. Wasn't a great game, no, but but I was up in the booth with Pete and we had an officiating here. Oh, it was not a good day for Pete. He was upset, but the reality is I spent the entire week with Pete basically living in his in his room. I was his sort of go to to every thing, and it was it was the experience of a lifetime to me. I never thought that I would even be that close to much less driving.
Them around town. And now you're the commissioner.
Now I'm commit. He had a lot to do with that, I'm sure. And it wasn't for my driving skills.
You know, it's tough streets to talk.
I mean, also easy to try to go down twice just to figure out my way around.
I would have mentioned wh This was fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. Have an amazing rest of the season. Hopefully we'll talk to you again and enjoy you're up when you go over there as well.
Look forward to it. Thank you, guys, thanks for all you do. We're glad to have you back.
Thank you, thank you.
It was too long while you were going.
It was when I were fresh as a daisy. And International Games coming up this month in November. You're gonna drink a beer again in Germany.
If you're there, let's go that.
The t's and TV.
Talk bring on Aaron Wang Kaufman, our producer here on the podcast, who does not work on Good Morning Football. So Aaron at the end there we start rattling off some questions and he has a really response to me asking about Belichick, the media mogul, and it hit me in an emotional way that he's like he always had John Madden as this north star, this rabbi if you will, this this voice that he could talk to, and when Madden passed that they might have been avoid there. It's pretty neat that he says he's talking to Belichick pretty often, and the closest thing to Madden that he's had is now this new relationship with Belichick, which he's obviously had in a different capacity. But to have Belichick serve in that Madden role for Commissioner Goodell, I just thought it was cool. I thought Roger was great. He heads over to London next week. He'll be there for the football game that's going on in London next week. But Jamie rd All, my co host, is flying over now, she'll be there. But Aaron Roger Goodell anytime you get him on, you know, without the certain tie on which as he came in with just an unbuttoned shirt and just loose and comfortable. I always find him to be a very interesting conversationalist.
But also what I love is he is a.
True story end of the game, Like this guy goes deep and his stories about Pete Roselle in nineteen eighty six, like that's the stuff I'm here for.
I have a tangential Goodell story when I was at the Fanatics Festival earlier this summer. Goodell was there at the NFL like experience or whatever it is. I think he did a speech or something at something, but then he was just standing there and a bunch of kids were like going to get his autograph, and he stood there and signed autographs with kids the whole time. And you know, it was like a long time that he was just sitting there with this crowd of kids coming up to talk to him and get autographs with him, and he was very into it. I've never personally talked to him or met him. You know, I'm a little too old, I think for the little crowd to get the yeah, to get the autograph. But he was great with the kids and.
You know everyone.
So Pete Roselle was his mentor and this guy that he you know, obviously came in, and then it was Paul tag Leboo, and it's wild Goodell is He's been the commission longer than all those guys, so it's pretty crazy that I still remember when he was ushered in. So Roger Goodell, great interview. Appreciate you guys listening. This is a bonus episode. Go find the Michael Vick episode. We'd like to give you.
As much content as possible.
All Right, enjoy Week five of the NFL season Jets Vikings nine thirty am.
Start, don't forget, and that's over there on NFL Network. All right. Peace.
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.
