Roger Goodell’s press conference at Super Bowl LX on Monday discussed a subject that is pretty controversial.
Goodell was asked about recent revelations that showed New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
When asked about Tisch’s emails, Goodell claimed the league is looking into it, and wanted to get all the facts first before addressing whether or not Tisch would be subject to discipline under the league’s personal conduct policy.
“Well, you may be getting ahead of yourself on the second part, but I would say that absolutely we are going to look at all the facts,” Goodell said.“We’re going to look at the context of those, we’re going to try to understand that, and we’ll look at how that falls under the policy. But I think we take one step at a time. Let’s get the facts first.”
The Department of Justice released a bunch of files related to Epstein last week including e-mails from 2013 between Epstein and Tisch discussing multiple women, as Epstein activity worked to connected the Giants co-owner to them.
Several emails reviewed by The Athletic showed the two engaging in discussions about setting up meetings with women, and inappropriate discussions about their physical appearance. Tisch’s name appeared at least 440 times in the more than three million pages of documents released last week.
At one point, Tisch offered Epstein two tickets to his suite at MetLife Stadium, and Epstein responded by inviting him to his private Caribbean island. It is not clear if Tisch actually visited the island.
Tisch released a statement addressing the e-mails.
Tisch’s father, Preston Robert Tisch, bought 50% of the Giants in 1991, and the family has owned it ever since. Ownership of the team passed to Steve in 2005, when Preston died from brain cancer. He co-owns the franchise with John Mara.
It is unclear whether the NFL could levy any punishment on the 76-year-old Tisch or force him to sell the team because of his relationship with Epstein.
