Giants co-owner John Mara and Steelers owner Art Rooney II will be running the investigation to be conducted by former FBI director Robert Mueller. But they won’t be running it.
“Commissioner Goodell called us on Wednesday evening and requested that we oversee the independent investigation that will be conducted by former FBI Director Robert Mueller III,” Mara and Rooney said in a joint statement. “Our role is not to conduct or direct the investigation but to support Mr. Mueller and assist him in gaining whatever access or resources he needs. At the conclusion of Mr. Mueller’s investigation, we will receive his findings on behalf of the League’s owners.”
Mara and Rooney also said that Mueller’s report and findings will be shared with the public.
“We have spoken with Mr. Mueller today, and he has informed us he is prepared to begin immediately,” Mara and Rooney said. “No timeline was established and we stressed that he should take as much time as necessary to complete a thorough investigation. We agreed that the scope of the investigation should be aimed at getting answers to specific questions, including what efforts were made by league staff to obtain the video of what took place inside the elevator and to determine whether, in fact, the video was ever delivered to someone at the league office, and if so, what happened to the video after it was delivered.”
The mandate to ascertain the efforts made to obtain the video shows that the investigation will be broader than whether the video was sent by someone to a league executive, and who if anyone thereafter saw it. Mueller will be looking at what was and wasn’t done to get the tape, presumably asking questions that Goodell hasn’t answered, including but not limited to whether the league asked Rice to produce the tape via his lawyer, and if not, why not?
“Mr. Mueller assured us that his investigation will be thorough and independent, and that he will keep us informed of his progress,” Mara and Rooney said, not mentioning the tentacles between the NFL and Mueller’s firm, which could make Mueller at a key moment in the process pause or hesitate or tread lightly -- which means he’s not truly independent.
So we won’t be calling the process independent. It won’t truly be independent unless and until someone who has no reason to give any thought as to how a specific outcome to the investigation would affect the investigator’s broader interests.
