In an emotional interview prior to the NFL -previous season opener on Thursday evening between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Detroit Lions, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke earlier this week the shooting focused on the NFL headquarters, killing four.
Goodell was not in the game, instead stayed in New York City to attend the funeral of the NYPD officer Didarul Islam, who died in the attack together with a guard, an employee of real estate and an executive for investment company.
“Huge loss”, ” Said GoodellThinking about the death of Islam, a father of two with a third on the road.
“You see the officer’s family, his young children. It is something that happens in the work for police officers, but that never makes it easy. He has been made a detective today. It is an honor and a promotion that is deserved for his courage.
“It touches at home – the loss, the unnecessary and inexplicable loss. … So it was a difficult, emotional afternoon but also a huge, heart -warming service for him.”
An NFL employee was also seriously injured in the attack. Goodell said that he spent about an hour with his colleague on Wednesday in a hospital in New York and described his condition as ‘stable and improved’.
“He has a young family. I had the chance to meet his brother and parents, and I think it’s something that is hard for all of us to understand and to go along,” Goodell said, his voice was shaking.
The 27-year-old shooter was planning to focus on the NFL headquarters, but took the wrong lift, said civil servants on Tuesday. A note on the shooter’s body claimed that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain disease linked to repetitive head injuries such as those by NFL players.
The shooter played in high school football a few decades ago, but never in the NFL.
Goodell did not immediately tackle the CTE claim when the Mike Tirico of NBC was asked, instead he complains about the violence.
“There are no apologies for those meaningless actions,” said Goodell. “They are difficult for all of us to understand when it causes pain to people you know and people you care about and people we have to deal with every day. That is particularly difficult.
“But as you know, these acts of meaningless violence and hatred happen in our country, and our world, far too often – in schools, in churches and in synagogues and other places,” Goodell continued. “This just shouldn’t happen, but we all have to remain vigilant and do what we can do to protect ourselves, and the NFL will do that with our employees and with our people.”
