MIAMI — In his annual Super Bowl week address Wednesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sad the league is “having incredibly productive dialogue” with the NFLPA regarding a new collective bargaining agreement.
The current deal expires at after the 2020 season. Striking a deal in the next month would likely raise the salary cap considerably.
“I think we’ve made a lot of progress in the last seven or eight months since we began those discussions more formally,” he said.
Among the other topics he addressed:
• The league is re-examining the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching and general manager jobs, because of a dearth of new minority hires.
“It’s clear we need to change and do something different,” Goodell said. “There’s no reason to expect we’re going to have a different outcome next year without those kinds of changes and we’ve already begun engaging in those changes.”
• The NFL will play one game in Mexico in each of the next two years, with the teams to be announced in the next two months, Goodell said.
• He offered little update about the progress of the league’s investigation into the Patriots’ videotaping of the Bengals or its review of Antonio Brown, though he said the league was concerned for the former receiver’s well-being.
