NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defended the league's decision to suspend running back two games for violating the league's personal conduct policy.
Our policy is clear. We have very firm policy that domestic violence is not acceptable here in the NFL and there will be consequences for that, Goodell said Friday from Canton, Ohio. We obviously were going through the process of evaluating the issue and whether there would be discipline. We look at all of the facts we have available to us. ...
(Rice) has been accountable for his actions. He recognizes he made a horrible mistake that is unacceptable by his standards, by our standards, and he's got to work to re-establish himself. The criminal justice system, as you know, put him in a diversionary program with no discipline, and we felt it was appropriate to have discipline and to continue counseling programs and to continue our educational work.
And I was also very impressed with Ray in the sense that Ray is not only accepting this issue in saying 'I was wrong' but he's saying I wanna make a powerful difference in this area. And I think you and he's a young man that really understands the mistake he made and he's out and bound and determined to make a positive difference.

Goodell cited the need to remain consistent with previous discipline. He mentioned that this was Rice's first incident, and he addressed the difference in punishment for domestic abuse and some substance-abuse related suspensions.
You gotta deal with some facts, okay? When we have a drug program that's collectively bargained, and it has a step-process, it takes four incidents before you actually reach a suspension in a drug-related case. So, you have to respond to facts here. You have a lot of people voicing their opinion but I think it's important to understand that this is a young man who made a terrible mistake. It's inconsistent with what we're all about, we've dealt with it in a serious manner and we're very confident this young man understands where he is and what he needs to do going forward.
Other takeaways from Goodell's media time:
On : There's a process that he's going through right now. His appeal is actually being heard today. We'll make a decision based on the information.
Goodell addressed the FCC's discussion about possibly .
Well, the FCC has said that they're considering views on this issue. And they have it on the table, they're discussing whether they'll make a decision on that sometime, possibly this fall. What we're trying to do is keep the program in place because it's worked for several decades. We are the only sport on free television.
We believe that staying on free television is good for consumers. There's 60 million people and growing, including a lot of minorities that are watching NFL football on free television, and we want to keep it that way. We are concerned that changing this, which we are 99 percent sold out, has very little impact on our business, could have an impact on the overall business model for free television. And that's devastating we think to our consumers and to consumers in general.
On the sale: I'll be getting an update next week but they've obviously had first bids that were submitted earlier this week. We're moving into the second phase of that. Exchanging more information with the candidates. I do not know how many people remain in the process, ... that's not something we know at this point. On a normal basis.
The latest breaks down 's belated arrival at camp and debates which active NFL players are for the .