Jan. 18--As NFL fans prepare to watch a pair of high stakes conference championship games on Sunday, banners flown above CenturyLink Field in Seattle and Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., will have a message for the league's commissioner.
UltraViolet, a national women's advocacy organization, will have planes over both stadiums with the message #GoodellMustGo, as members advocate for the ouster of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The organization is assailing Goodell for what it calls "repeatedly mishandling the NFL's domestic violence problem."
Earlier this year, Goodell, who has served as commissioner since 2006, came under intense scrutiny for not offering a tougher penalty for former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. Before the release of a video of Rice punching his now-wife in an Atlantic City casino elevator, Goodell had suspended him for two games.
The move gained widespread criticism of Goodell, who insisted that he had not seen the video before handing down the suspension. A recent independent investigation commissioned by the league and spearheaded by former FBI director Robert Mueller found that no NFL officials had seen the recording before it was made public by TMZ.
"It (NFL) simply doesn't have the leadership to fix it," Shaunna Thomas, cofounder of UltraViolet, said of the league's issues with domestic violence. "It is clear that the NFL will not take domestic violence seriously until Roger Goodell is gone."
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