This is Inside the Vegas Huddle, your podcast connection to the events and initiatives
led by the Las Vegas Super Bowl fifty eight Host Committee in advance of the
big game at Allegian Stadium. Welcome to Inside the Vegas Huddle, and welcome
to Inside the Vegas Huddle. We're excited as we count down to Super Bowl
fifty eight right here in Las Vegas, and we are very pleased to have
the Commissioner of the National Football League, mister Roger Goodell, joins us and
appreciate you spending a few minutes with us here. I'm so excited. I
know you are. The NFL is for Super Bowl fifty eight right here on
CBS in lawst right. Don't forget that. Yes, don't peak too early,
as I told you so. Yes, we're so excited ourselves. This
is going to be this is going to be a special event for us as
well as this community. And I think we'll show the world all the great
things about Vegas. What is the magic of Las Vegas. Because I've heard
from so many people, your people included from the NFL, the Host Committee,
the LBCBA that says this is this will set the bar to a new
level of super Bowl excitement and for the NFL, well, I think it's
because you know how to do big events, you know how to embrace these,
you know how to make them bigger ultimately, and it's a community that
people want to come and experience great events. So I think this in many
ways will set a new bar. We'd like to do that every year so
that somebody tries to leap over at the next year. And I think this
will be special for our fans. But as I said, I'm really hopeful
that this community would be proud of this event when we leave. You mentioned
in there and there's no mix, but you got to figure Las Vegas if
there was a mix to get into a super Bowl mix, this won't be
the last super Bowl in Las Vegas. Well, they're clearly in the mix,
but you know you have to perform to stay in the mix. So
and I have no doubt that this super Bowl will be extraordinary, and it's
something that so many people are contributing. We have a great partnership here with
the super Bowl Host Committee of the public and private sector, so many wonderful
partners in this community. All of that is going to contribute to something that
I think will embrace this community in a way that all of them will get
to share in that and the joy of putting on something great and a long
lasting legacy for this community. You know, we used to always say,
if you can't go to the super Bowl. This is back in the day,
your early years as commissioner, If you can't go to the super Bowl,
the next best place is Las Vegas because we could come here and have
found there were parties. But you recall there was a time before the Supreme
Court made all this possible, that that Vegas was kind of a taboo city.
Well, you know, I just said this earlier, you know,
to me to see the way Las Vegas has evolved. It's flourished, It's
become an incredible destination spot and entertainment capital of the world in many ways.
And I think all that's attribute to the leadership here to understanding what it took
to get that to that place, to bringing in the types of events like
Super Bowls and F one and all the other events that have contributed so much
to the community. I think that's a tribute to the leadership. And that's
on the public and private sector as well as this community in general. People
love it, and you can see that in the way events are happening here.
The passion. I know there's a governors and city council leaders and mayors
who are saying the Supreme Court did so much good in terms of allowing gaming
and all the states and sports gambling and so forth. And really it'sself the
NFL and you think of fantasy football and you guys are now associated with Caesars.
It's really done a lot, hasn't it for the NFL? Well?
I think it gives people another way to engage in our sport and our games
and our events, and so that's always a good thing. Ultimately, you
know, it's there are challenges that come with anything that we just have to
make sure we protect the intake it to the game. But you know,
our partners here have been great on that, and our partners on a national
and global basis have been great on that. It's part of something we deal
with we take seriously. But it's been a huge win for all of us.
Somebody told me out here prior to that, Roger took his family to
the Taylor Swift concert, so I know he likes standards with how cool has
that been with Travis Kelcey and Taylor just eyeballs on the spot. People who
may not have been into the game of the NFL now we're watching and kind
of vice versa. Yeah, listen again. You know, anything that brings
attention to the sport in a way that it gives people a chance to sort
of say, what is it about the NFL or what is it about Taylor
Swifts and Travis Kelce's relationship, It just creates more interest. And she performed
for us on our kickoff game several years ago. She's an extraordinary artist,
a wonderful person and someone that I'm not surprised to see your success, but
glad it's part of the NFL too. And speaking of entertainment, the halftime
shows are gigantic now. They're as big as the game itself in some people's
eyes. And you got Usher coming to fifty eight. Yeah, well,
we try to get a little bit of a local flare to that sure,
in a residence here. But you know, I think the halftime show has
become incredibly important for not just our audience at the stadium, but also obviously
our television audience on a global basis, and it does bring in more viewership.
It brings in casual viewers, and we hope it's all part of the
entertainment. We hope we can add another aspect of the Super Bowl why people
want to watch. They even like to watch our commercials, which is really
it's a big part of our show and our advertisers are a big part of
that. You were saying those are the most stressful twelve minutes for an artist,
right, Yes, that was Several have said that, but when Bruce
Ringston said it to me, I was really taken back because he's done a
lot of performances, but he can dictate how long it goes. He had
to come out, he had to hit it, and he had twelve minutes
to get on and off stage and light up the world, and he did.
Internationally, the game has just grown beyond belief in a way where it's
just becoming so big And I was surprised for four million, more and a
half million and a half tickets could have been sold for our two Germany games.
What does that kind of tell you about the league in the NFL and
just how excited it is over there that there's great potential that we have fans
on a global basis that we need to do more to bring the game to
our fans. That's all of what we're really focused on, and a big
initiative for us. Becoming an Olympic sport in twenty eight is something that we
think is going to provide a great opportunity to promote the game of football on
a global basis, but also to give young girls and young boys a chance
to play the game even outside of the Olympics and maybe compete in the Olympics.
But to get that ability to play football is something we want to share
with them. Own players obviously bigger, faster, stronger, certainly than when
you've gotten involved in the NFL and then we've been around watching it forever.
Player safety is always such a big concern on the top of your guys' minds
all the time, isn't it. It is because we, you know,
we always look for things what we can do to make the game safer.
That could be changes and looking at techniques to remove them from the game.
It can be improving equipment, It can be improving our surfaces where we play,
our cleats, and so we study this, We invest in research,
We bring all of the data together to help us look at what changes we
want to make to the game to make it safer as well as more exciting.
And I think we've proven we can do the two together. And that's
something that some people doubted we could do, but clearly we've been able to
do that. And diversity in the league, it just keeps climbing. You
guys make a big effort there as well, so where you have just the
diverse on and off the field really right, even female referees and so forth.
Absolutely, and again it's a part of making the NFL great. And
you know, you have to have great talent, and so we want talent
from every sector, every place. They can all contribute to making the NFL
better. And so we love that. And diversity is a core, fundamental
aspect of the NFL. Quarterbacks are the biggest stars on the team. Recently
Tom Brady talked about that. But it's almost it's kind of a tough fine
line you have to cross. I mean, is the game getting softer?
Perhaps not, but you want to protect the quarterbacks, and these quarterbacks that
are injured right now, those are the players that fans want to come see.
That's kind of a's is the game getting softer? No? And I'll
bite you down the sideline sometime and you'll see, and you mentioned before,
the players are faster, they're bigger. That equates to more force. And
so what we believe is the game can still be full contact, but you
just have to take those techniques that we see data that supports that they lead
to an injury. So we're looking at types of hip drop as a new
one where it's a technique that leads to more serious injuries. We want to
figure out how to address that and how to get that out of the game
so that you see contact and you see the toughness of the players, but
you also get to see them on the field say there and be healthy,
not just why they're playing, but also after they leave the field. I
couldn't let you leave without talking about Al Davis. I mean, people love
him wherever you go. He was kind of a maverick, one of those
guys. And so, what do you have any kind of cool little story
or something about Al Davis that you can share with us. Well, Al
taught me a lot as young. I've been in the league nearly forty two
years, and to see somebody who has a passion for the game, I've
never seen anyone who has that kind of passion. It always is about the
game. But I think people underestimate the influence he had in the league in
so many areas. He was an innovator. He brought the first to hire
a black head coach in the modern era, to bring in a female president
of the club, to change the way standard the NFL was run in some
way. He challenged status quo in so many ways, and I think ultimately
those things continue to make us better. Look at what if your job would
be to raise revenue, get more eyeballs on the sport, and just to
increase the popularity. You've certainly done your drive, you know, terrific successful
job. So kind of what do you feel as next? What can you
do better to five years down the road or something? Or is it do
more of it? You know? I think again, to share our game
internationally and make this a global sport. I think the potential is so clearly
there from the experience we've had. We're going to expand the regular season series,
We're going to continue to do that. So I believe making our sport
global is a big initiative. But all the things we work on keeping our
game competitive, you know we now have seventy one percent of our games that
are within seven points in the fourth quarter. Never been more competitive. Great
young players, including at the quarterback position, that are stepping in and just
playing lights out. So for us, we want to keep the game,
the focus on that and the quality and the competition continue to grow it can
enjoy it and make sure that we continue to do everything with the highest quality.
That's what we want to do, all right. Final question, I
know you're having a blast doing this. I had to write this down,
the challenges to have fun, to keep going. If you were to walk
away right now, how do you want to be remembered. Well, I'm
so busy, I can't even think about that. And there's so much you
know, I look forward, I don't look backwards. The only time we
look back is to see what we can learn and see how we can get
better. But for me, there's so much potential. I think the best
days of the NFL ahead of it, and I want to help try to
keep us down that path and to keep us on that track because I do
believe the potential for this sport is still only being scratched. If someone had
never seen a National Football League game, and they came to us and describe
it to me, how would you describe a National League football game. I
think that's what makes football so exciting because there's so much strategy to it,
there's so much athletic ability to there's teamwork. The things that I learned so
much from playing the game that I think are foundational to who I am and
frankly represents the values of so many people. The hard work, the determination,
the resiliency, the teamwork, all of that makes football truly unique.
There's no better team sport. And when you see that all come together and
then you see the drama of it all. People like to tease that we
write the script. I couldn't think of these scripts, and neither could our
team, and it's things just evolved so quickly, and I think that's really
the fascination of the sport. Well, the writer's got to get back in
the super Bowl. Yes they do, Yes, And I know they're focused
on it, and I know Mark and Sandra and so many of the Raiders
fans are looking forward to that day. Thank you, Thanks Chris four