NFL Owners Approve Changes To Personal Conduct Policy
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Changing the rules. The NFL gets new guidelines on how it must discipline domestic violence offenders after Rice Rice's elevator incident caused months of public outcry.
Vic Carter has more.
The NFL owners unanimously approved changes to the league's personal conduct policy Wednesday.
"The policy is comprehensive. It is strong, it is tough and it is better for everyone associated with the NFL," said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The new policy includes an extensive list of the conduct that's prohibited, a six game suspension as the baseline punishment for abusers and NFL-funded counseling for victims, their families and violators.
The changes, prompted by the NFL's blunders in punishing Ray Rice for his domestic assault case. A judge threw out Rice's NFL suspension, saying it was wrong for the league to change his original punishment of just two games to an indefinite suspension later.
Commissioner Goodell said Wednesday he's learned from those mistakes.
"To make sure that you're able to try to prevent acts from happening that don't reflect well on your organization and more importantly, make sure there are consequences," Goodell said.
The players' association says it wasn't given a chance to review the policy before it was made public, saying, "Their unilateral decision and conduct today is the only thing that has been consistent over the past few months."
The players' union hasn't said yet if it will challenge the new policy.
