Three days after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell gave his tense news conference in New York, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti took questions for nearly 50 minutes Monday after an ESPN report, as he said, questioned the team’s integrity.
Some have characterized it as awkward. Others have said that that by virtue of being better than Goodell, Bisciotti looked good.
Here’s what some national outlets have been writing Bisciotti’s news conference:
Michael McCann, Sports Illustrated:
“Bisciotti adopted the opposite approach. He sat, and often sat back, during the entire press conference. He wore no tie. He seemed noticeably relaxed in spite of difficult questions. Bisciotti’s tone was conversational and fluid. He avoided repetition of talking points, a problem Goodell experienced during his press conference.
At times Bisciotti’s candor may have gone too far for the NFL and Goodell. Consider Bisciotti’s response to a question about whether Goodell furnished Bisciotti with a favor by only suspending Rice two games. Bisciotti implied that Goodell would do him favors, but not ones about ‘something that will be published nationally.’ While the idea that a league commissioner would be willing to do ‘favors’ for an individual owner isn’t surprising, remember that Goodell is about to be the subject of an internal investigation that could cost him his job. Now more than ever, Goodell would prefer that he be described as fair and neutral to all owners. After all, these are the same owners who could fire him.”
“Here’s a message to every N.F.L. and team official who has been involved, even tangentially, in the Ray Rice scandal: Please stop talking.
From now on, refrain from trotting out in front of cameras to say how you have erred. Spare our ears from explanations of your ineptitude that are only making the hole you have fallen into much deeper.
For everyone’s sake, stop digging.”
“Steve Bisciotti, the owner of the Ravens, sat in front of the media for 47 minutes Monday taking questions, and did what Roger Goodell should have done: Speak without notes, from the heart, not like some robot programmed to give canned answers.
Bisciotti, who some will easily dismiss because of his fake tan and impossibly white teeth, was impressive because he a) admitted guilt multiple times for not further pursing the elevator video and b) systematically tore the ESPN story from last week to shreds.”
Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk:
“Bisciott’s version of the situation, as articulated at the press conference and set forth in the the lengthy statement from the team, could be interpreted as Bisciotti believing that he did nothing that would justify a decision to force him to sell the team. Ultimately, the decision regarding what the Ravens knew, when they knew it, and what if anything they did wrong will be made by former FBI director Robert Mueller, who is conducting an investigation of the entire situation.
And that’s when things could get even more interesting. If Bisciotti disputes Mueller’s version of the events, will Bisciotti change his mind regarding whether any employees of the team should no longer be employees of the team? Or will Bisciotti dispute Mueller’s report the same way Bisciotti disputed the ESPN report?”
