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This is Inside the Vegas Huddle,
your podcast connection to the events and initiatives

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led by the Las Vegas Super Bowl
fifty eight Host Committee in advance of the

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big game at Allegian Stadium. Welcome
to Inside the Vegas Huddle, and welcome

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to Inside the Vegas Huddle. We're
excited as we count down to Super Bowl

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fifty eight right here in Las Vegas, and we are very pleased to have

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the Commissioner of the National Football League, mister Roger Goodell, joins us and

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appreciate you spending a few minutes with
us here. I'm so excited. I

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know you are. The NFL is
for Super Bowl fifty eight right here on

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CBS in lawst right. Don't forget
that. Yes, don't peak too early,

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as I told you so. Yes, we're so excited ourselves. This

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is going to be this is going
to be a special event for us as

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well as this community. And I
think we'll show the world all the great

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things about Vegas. What is the
magic of Las Vegas. Because I've heard

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from so many people, your people
included from the NFL, the Host Committee,

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the LBCBA that says this is this
will set the bar to a new

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level of super Bowl excitement and for
the NFL, well, I think it's

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because you know how to do big
events, you know how to embrace these,

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you know how to make them bigger
ultimately, and it's a community that

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people want to come and experience great
events. So I think this in many

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ways will set a new bar.
We'd like to do that every year so

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that somebody tries to leap over at
the next year. And I think this

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will be special for our fans.
But as I said, I'm really hopeful

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that this community would be proud of
this event when we leave. You mentioned

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in there and there's no mix,
but you got to figure Las Vegas if

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there was a mix to get into
a super Bowl mix, this won't be

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the last super Bowl in Las Vegas. Well, they're clearly in the mix,

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but you know you have to perform
to stay in the mix. So

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and I have no doubt that this
super Bowl will be extraordinary, and it's

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something that so many people are contributing. We have a great partnership here with

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the super Bowl Host Committee of the
public and private sector, so many wonderful

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partners in this community. All of
that is going to contribute to something that

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I think will embrace this community in
a way that all of them will get

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to share in that and the joy
of putting on something great and a long

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lasting legacy for this community. You
know, we used to always say,

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if you can't go to the super
Bowl. This is back in the day,

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your early years as commissioner, If
you can't go to the super Bowl,

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the next best place is Las Vegas
because we could come here and have

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found there were parties. But you
recall there was a time before the Supreme

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Court made all this possible, that
that Vegas was kind of a taboo city.

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Well, you know, I just
said this earlier, you know,

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to me to see the way Las
Vegas has evolved. It's flourished, It's

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become an incredible destination spot and entertainment
capital of the world in many ways.

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And I think all that's attribute to
the leadership here to understanding what it took

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to get that to that place,
to bringing in the types of events like

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Super Bowls and F one and all
the other events that have contributed so much

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to the community. I think that's
a tribute to the leadership. And that's

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on the public and private sector as
well as this community in general. People

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love it, and you can see
that in the way events are happening here.

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The passion. I know there's a
governors and city council leaders and mayors

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who are saying the Supreme Court did
so much good in terms of allowing gaming

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and all the states and sports gambling
and so forth. And really it'sself the

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NFL and you think of fantasy football
and you guys are now associated with Caesars.

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It's really done a lot, hasn't
it for the NFL? Well?

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I think it gives people another way
to engage in our sport and our games

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and our events, and so that's
always a good thing. Ultimately, you

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know, it's there are challenges that
come with anything that we just have to

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make sure we protect the intake it
to the game. But you know,

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our partners here have been great on
that, and our partners on a national

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and global basis have been great on
that. It's part of something we deal

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with we take seriously. But it's
been a huge win for all of us.

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Somebody told me out here prior to
that, Roger took his family to

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the Taylor Swift concert, so I
know he likes standards with how cool has

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that been with Travis Kelcey and Taylor
just eyeballs on the spot. People who

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may not have been into the game
of the NFL now we're watching and kind

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of vice versa. Yeah, listen
again. You know, anything that brings

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attention to the sport in a way
that it gives people a chance to sort

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of say, what is it about
the NFL or what is it about Taylor

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Swifts and Travis Kelce's relationship, It
just creates more interest. And she performed

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for us on our kickoff game several
years ago. She's an extraordinary artist,

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a wonderful person and someone that I'm
not surprised to see your success, but

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glad it's part of the NFL too. And speaking of entertainment, the halftime

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shows are gigantic now. They're as
big as the game itself in some people's

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eyes. And you got Usher coming
to fifty eight. Yeah, well,

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we try to get a little bit
of a local flare to that sure,

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in a residence here. But you
know, I think the halftime show has

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become incredibly important for not just our
audience at the stadium, but also obviously

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our television audience on a global basis, and it does bring in more viewership.

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It brings in casual viewers, and
we hope it's all part of the

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entertainment. We hope we can add
another aspect of the Super Bowl why people

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want to watch. They even like
to watch our commercials, which is really

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it's a big part of our show
and our advertisers are a big part of

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that. You were saying those are
the most stressful twelve minutes for an artist,

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right, Yes, that was Several
have said that, but when Bruce

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Ringston said it to me, I
was really taken back because he's done a

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lot of performances, but he can
dictate how long it goes. He had

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to come out, he had to
hit it, and he had twelve minutes

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to get on and off stage and
light up the world, and he did.

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Internationally, the game has just grown
beyond belief in a way where it's

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just becoming so big And I was
surprised for four million, more and a

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half million and a half tickets could
have been sold for our two Germany games.

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What does that kind of tell you
about the league in the NFL and

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just how excited it is over there
that there's great potential that we have fans

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on a global basis that we need
to do more to bring the game to

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our fans. That's all of what
we're really focused on, and a big

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initiative for us. Becoming an Olympic
sport in twenty eight is something that we

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think is going to provide a great
opportunity to promote the game of football on

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a global basis, but also to
give young girls and young boys a chance

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to play the game even outside of
the Olympics and maybe compete in the Olympics.

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But to get that ability to play
football is something we want to share

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with them. Own players obviously bigger, faster, stronger, certainly than when

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you've gotten involved in the NFL and
then we've been around watching it forever.

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Player safety is always such a big
concern on the top of your guys' minds

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all the time, isn't it.
It is because we, you know,

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we always look for things what we
can do to make the game safer.

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That could be changes and looking at
techniques to remove them from the game.

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It can be improving equipment, It
can be improving our surfaces where we play,

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our cleats, and so we study
this, We invest in research,

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We bring all of the data together
to help us look at what changes we

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want to make to the game to
make it safer as well as more exciting.

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And I think we've proven we can
do the two together. And that's

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something that some people doubted we could
do, but clearly we've been able to

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do that. And diversity in the
league, it just keeps climbing. You

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guys make a big effort there as
well, so where you have just the

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diverse on and off the field really
right, even female referees and so forth.

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Absolutely, and again it's a part
of making the NFL great. And

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you know, you have to have
great talent, and so we want talent

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from every sector, every place.
They can all contribute to making the NFL

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better. And so we love that. And diversity is a core, fundamental

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aspect of the NFL. Quarterbacks are
the biggest stars on the team. Recently

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Tom Brady talked about that. But
it's almost it's kind of a tough fine

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line you have to cross. I
mean, is the game getting softer?

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Perhaps not, but you want to
protect the quarterbacks, and these quarterbacks that

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are injured right now, those are
the players that fans want to come see.

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That's kind of a's is the game
getting softer? No? And I'll

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bite you down the sideline sometime and
you'll see, and you mentioned before,

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the players are faster, they're bigger. That equates to more force. And

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so what we believe is the game
can still be full contact, but you

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just have to take those techniques that
we see data that supports that they lead

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to an injury. So we're looking
at types of hip drop as a new

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one where it's a technique that leads
to more serious injuries. We want to

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figure out how to address that and
how to get that out of the game

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so that you see contact and you
see the toughness of the players, but

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you also get to see them on
the field say there and be healthy,

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not just why they're playing, but
also after they leave the field. I

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couldn't let you leave without talking about
Al Davis. I mean, people love

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him wherever you go. He was
kind of a maverick, one of those

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guys. And so, what do
you have any kind of cool little story

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or something about Al Davis that you
can share with us. Well, Al

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taught me a lot as young.
I've been in the league nearly forty two

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years, and to see somebody who
has a passion for the game, I've

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never seen anyone who has that kind
of passion. It always is about the

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game. But I think people underestimate
the influence he had in the league in

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so many areas. He was an
innovator. He brought the first to hire

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a black head coach in the modern
era, to bring in a female president

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of the club, to change the
way standard the NFL was run in some

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way. He challenged status quo in
so many ways, and I think ultimately

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those things continue to make us better. Look at what if your job would

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be to raise revenue, get more
eyeballs on the sport, and just to

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increase the popularity. You've certainly done
your drive, you know, terrific successful

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job. So kind of what do
you feel as next? What can you

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do better to five years down the
road or something? Or is it do

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more of it? You know?
I think again, to share our game

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internationally and make this a global sport. I think the potential is so clearly

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there from the experience we've had.
We're going to expand the regular season series,

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We're going to continue to do that. So I believe making our sport

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global is a big initiative. But
all the things we work on keeping our

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game competitive, you know we now
have seventy one percent of our games that

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are within seven points in the fourth
quarter. Never been more competitive. Great

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young players, including at the quarterback
position, that are stepping in and just

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playing lights out. So for us, we want to keep the game,

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the focus on that and the quality
and the competition continue to grow it can

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enjoy it and make sure that we
continue to do everything with the highest quality.

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That's what we want to do,
all right. Final question, I

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know you're having a blast doing this. I had to write this down,

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the challenges to have fun, to
keep going. If you were to walk

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away right now, how do you
want to be remembered. Well, I'm

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so busy, I can't even think
about that. And there's so much you

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know, I look forward, I
don't look backwards. The only time we

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look back is to see what we
can learn and see how we can get

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better. But for me, there's
so much potential. I think the best

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days of the NFL ahead of it, and I want to help try to

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keep us down that path and to
keep us on that track because I do

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believe the potential for this sport is
still only being scratched. If someone had

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never seen a National Football League game, and they came to us and describe

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it to me, how would you
describe a National League football game. I

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think that's what makes football so exciting
because there's so much strategy to it,

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there's so much athletic ability to there's
teamwork. The things that I learned so

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much from playing the game that I
think are foundational to who I am and

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frankly represents the values of so many
people. The hard work, the determination,

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the resiliency, the teamwork, all
of that makes football truly unique.

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There's no better team sport. And
when you see that all come together and

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then you see the drama of it
all. People like to tease that we

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write the script. I couldn't think
of these scripts, and neither could our

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team, and it's things just evolved
so quickly, and I think that's really

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the fascination of the sport. Well, the writer's got to get back in

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the super Bowl. Yes they do, Yes, And I know they're focused

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on it, and I know Mark
and Sandra and so many of the Raiders

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fans are looking forward to that day. Thank you, Thanks Chris four