Beasley Reece Defends NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After his handling of the Ray Rice situation, many people are calling for the firing of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Beasley Reece is not one of them.
Reece is a former NFL defensive back and the current Sports Director for CBS 3 in Philadelphia. Contrary to popular belief, Reece defended NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in his handling of the Ray Rice situation on Thursday.
"I'm shocked and pleased by the fact that a man who made 40 million dollars last year heard the public, heard his buying public, '50 percent of our fans are women in football,"' Reece told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show. "It's the only pro-sport that can say that. He heard them and said, 'Oh my goodness. OK, that's not enough. I hear you, here is additional penalty.' And then when he saw the video he knew what the outcry would be and suspended him indefinitely. So I don't know that I want the commissioner killed. I know that's an unpopular thing to say, but I don't know that the commissioner hasn't done what most executives and these kings' of industries---because that's where he is making 40 million a year! He's up there with the tops of all the big Fortune 500 companies. He's at the top!"
"Most people feel like that the commissioner had---there's rules between the players association and the NFL of what fines can be. The commissioner can't just go out and say, 'This is horrible, it turns my stomach, he's out 12 games.' It's all negotiated, collectively bargained. And I believe that the standards for that crime was two games.
Listen: Beasley Reece on the 94WIP Morning Show
Ultimately, Reece praised Goodell for adjusting his original penalty.
"What I'm saying is, what executive do you know who listens?" Reece asked. "He actually listened to the public and kept adjusting the fines until people were happy."
As for Rice himself, Reece said he should have been removed from football instantly.
"I said when it happened that he [Rice] should be fired because I was hurt as a former NFL player by the image," Reece explained. "I said at the time, he should be fired. I feel bad. I feel bad for everybody involved, but it's horrible."
Reece had a successful nine-year career in the NFL, playing for the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As a former player, Reece says he was embarrassed by the video showing Rice striking his wife in an elevator.
"What I saw in the video, I knew what was there," said Reece. "When we had the previous video, you know something really bad happened in the elevator. I was embarrassed. As a former NFL player, people are so quick to paint everybody with a broad brush. It's just such a bad inaccurate vision of the players in the National Football League."
For the latest on the Ray Rice Scandal, click here.
You may also be interested in these Sports stories: