Report: Roger Goodell Won't Attend NFL Season Opener In New England
BOSTON (CBS) -- Roger Goodell has no interest in attending next week's NFL season opener at Gillette Stadium.
According to Fox Sports' Mike Garafolo, Goodell will not be present when the defending Super Bowl champions take the field for the first time of the 2015 season.
Roger Goodell will not attend next Thursday's NFL opener in Foxboro, NFL confirmed. Believes the focus should be on game/festivities.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) September 3, 2015
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport also reported that Goodell will not attend the game.
Commissioner Roger Goodell will not attend season opener (via @RapSheet): http://t.co/E97QWB7uys pic.twitter.com/IoVT5B2PMF
— NFL (@NFL) September 3, 2015
The news comes as no surprise, after Judge Richard M. Berman ruled to overturn the four-game suspension issued by Goodell to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. After a lengthy appeal process, Berman ruled definitively that Goodell and the NFL acted improperly and unfairly throughout, thereby providing grounds to vacate the entire suspension.
As a result of the ongoing pursuit of Brady, the commissioner has become persona non grata in New England. He's also seemingly lost the support of influential Patriots owner Robert Kraft. So rather than test his luck, he's chosen to avoid the jeers and heckles of the home crowd in favor of watching the game on television from a place far, far away from the Patriots' Super Bowl banner raising ceremony.