NEW YORK — If you were sitting in the lobby of MLS headquarters on Thursday, you couldn’t avoid the topic: A wall-sized television was broadcasting all the latest news on the NFL’s domestic violence case involving Ray Rice and the scandal over how the league responded to it. A few blocks away, on Park Avenue, the NFL was in crisis and Commissioner Roger Goodell’s job was in jeopardy.
For MLS Commissioner Don Garber, there was a lot to think about when it came to how his own league responded to domestic violence. Additionally, MLS has a major connection with the NFL. Garber spent 16 years as an NFL executive before joining MLS in 1999. Five current or future MLS teams are fully or partially owned by NFL owners, and three MLS teams currently play or will play in stadiums in the NFL (New England, Seattle and, as of 2017, Atlanta).
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“(Goodell) and I go way back,” Garber said in an interview with SI.com. “We both started around the same time, in 1984. In my opinion, he is a brilliant, passionate and committed leader in their sport. These are tough times for him and the NFL, but I don’t believe this is just a sports issue. It’s a societal question, a moral question.”
“If there is a positive side to what is happening today with this issue, it is that it is creating a massive national debate on a crucial societal issue,” Garber continued. “I hope this discussion leads us all to start putting checks and balances in place and education to ensure that abhorrent behavior like domestic violence is eliminated in our society.”
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Goodell and three other sports league commissioners — Garber, the NBA’s Adam Silver and MLB’s Bud Selig — asking them to make their violence policies public. domestic.
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“We will respond to the committee with our policy,” Garber said. “As a league, we stand very strongly in solidarity with our players union in having a zero-tolerance policy towards racism, homophobia and any form of violence. I have broad powers to discipline players, owners and any employee of the league with respect to any of these matters. I am proud to say that in the 19 years of MLS, there have been no reported incidents of domestic violence between players… If something like this happened in our league, we would respond quickly.
(Former FC Dallas president Doug Quinn, also a former longtime NFL executive, was fully cleared of domestic violence charges in June 2013, but not before resigning from the club.)
Garber said all MLS players participate in preseason training with a counseling expert who visits each club and teaches players how to avoid potentially dangerous situations on and off the field.
“I believe all sports leagues have this, and so does MLS,” Garber said. “It is an independent body which meets every year with our clubs and our players to ensure that they are attentive to their behavior.”
