Harold Henderson: We had a very productive two-hour session with club owners and coaches. We had a candid, open exchange of ideas about the issue of player conduct off the field. We were able to identify some clear goals. We talked about some things that seemed to have potential for helping us to address this issue and some things that may not be of value. We think we now know where we are heading and we are in the process of formulating a more definitive plan on how to get there. I think the communication between the coaches and the owners was valuable to both sides and the Commissioner and those of us from the league office who were able to participate with him there. We learned a lot and together we can put together a very effective initiative now to better address this issue. We think that we have had strong and effective programs in place for several years that have been working and there is always a need to do a little better and that’s what we’re looking for, to figure out how to do better and exactly what to do that’s going to be effective to try to address these important issues going forward.

HH: The outcome is going to be more discussion and consideration and trying to figure out where we need to tweak and change the programs we have in place and the policies we have. It’s not clear that increased discipline is necessarily an answer but it is certainly a consideration to be evaluated very closely, whether there needs to be a strong message that more severe discipline needs to be attached to certain kinds of conduct. But more than that, I think, prevention is the key word here. We would like to avoid having the kind of incidents that have given rise to the concern we have now. Those incidents, as we know, are declining compared to recent years. We want to educate players, coaches and everybody affiliated with the teams on how to cope with situations and avoid these kinds of problems.

HH: No rules were changed. No policies were adopted or changed. This was an informational, planning and educational process to help us set the course going forward.

HH: We did not have any formal proposals, only suggestions and ideas. We have a two-page list of them and these coaches brought their own thoughts and were able to exchange those ideas and we have a number of things to think about in terms of modifications or tweaks to the program as we move forward.

Mike Holmgren: I think the educational process we just went through was excellent because everyone was free to talk about their own club and how they approach things and a lot of good ideas came out of it. How you approach your selection process is up to each individual club. There have been examples of young men who had a troubled past and were drafted and blossomed into fine football players and fine people for the league. But the reverse happens on occasion. I think it is up to each club. Certainly the Seahawks, as an example, we look at it and evaluate and look hard into the backgrounds of all our potential players and then you make decisions. If you feel you want to select a particular player then support systems if necessary have to be in place and you’re going to handle each situation on an individual basis and I think most teams look at it that way.

Brian Billick: I think the biggest thing to emphasize today is that we did not start at ground zero today nor was this a knee-jerk reaction to recent events. Both the league and the clubs have well-established programs that have been in place for a long time and we have had these types of discussions at every league gathering that I have ever been at, whether it is some type of presentation from professional counsel or interaction between coaches and NFL people. So this is not a knee-jerk reaction to recent events. The best thing that came out of today was a lot of sharing of ideas. We have very extensive programs in Baltimore but there were a couple of things brought up today that will bear looking at further and seeing if we want to implement them in Baltimore and I’m sure there are a number of coaches that saw the same thing. So that was the biggest outcome of today’s events as opposed to specific policies because although the league has been very proactive, this really is going to fall to a club issue in terms of your ability to deal with these athletes on a one-on-one basis and the players understanding the responsibilities that they have both to the league and to the clubs.

Tony Dungy: We do take off-the-field issues and character into consideration and we evaluate players on a lot of different skills: height, weight, size and speed and we view that as part of the evaluation process. We eliminate some players on the basis of what they can do physically. We do eliminate some players based on what’s gone in their past and what we think might go on in their future. We’re not always right but we’re not always right on how good players are going to be either.

HH: The creation of a support group at the club level. A number of people who are already in place at the club have the kinds of relationships with the players that with some direction and organization can be very effective at identifying what we call an "at risk-player" or just communicating to the players the risk that they face when they go out in the evening to socialize in the cities or when they are visiting new places, the people they associate with and travel with, people as diverse as the equipment manager, the trainer or the club coordinator all can have a roll. A lot of emphasis was put on the fact that the leadership players on each club feel a responsibility for the conduct of players and the image of the league and are willing and able to take a roll in influencing the younger players.

HH: That certainly was an issue that was discussed, the fact that most of our players are African American and many come from single parent families, from economically deprived backgrounds, from communities where the standards of conduct are different from the standard we hold them to in the NFL. There is a real transition issue and the coaches have a challenge to be able to deal with that issue to recognize that there are cultural differences here that make a significant gap to be bridged.

HH: We touched on that. The agents were not a major focus here. They have been talked about in other forums but here the notion is that agents do play a role in the shaping of a player’s conduct, particularly making a player appreciate the significance of his off-field conduct in terms of the impact on the club, on his own career, on his family, his life and that there is a role for agents and they need to be included.

HH: This is not a standing committee and there is not a plan to meet again in May. It was a panel to facilitate the exchange between coaches and owners and I think they were very effective in doing that. They were able to set the stage and draw out other coaches and owners to get their views aired and get a fair exchange of ideas.

HH: It’s a balance of the two factors. I am inclined to go with the prevention, education side of it. Discipline is an important part of deterrence and that has to be a factor too. The conversation involves some serious questions about the value of increased discipline. We have discipline now at what most people consider a high level but it is clear that discipline is an important part of our deterrence effort. Prevention would be a much bigger gain for us.

MH: We talked about both of those things in this meeting and it’s been talked about before this meeting. There have to be ramifications for your actions. That has to be made clear to any player you bring on to your team. But at the same time you have to have programs and a support staff in place to see if you can eliminate some problems and head things off before you get to the point where you have to go into some other direction.

HH: Even if you were a dictator and had the power, clearly it would not work. We think that is one of the cultural issues that we have to deal with and to break away from the communities is something difficult for a player to handle. Some people believe that the most effective way to get a player to understand the risk that they run if he continues to associate or run with his "posse" are his peers suggesting he make a change. It is really a function in most cases of youth. We have players that range in their 20s. By the time they are in their 30s, they are out of the league. By the time a player is 25 or 26, he is a mature veteran and those are not the players that seem to have the association problems to the same extent. It’s the young players coming in that are still holding on to their teenage and college years. It’s the veteran player that is going to be the most influential on getting that player to realize the downside or the risk if he continues to run in those circles.

BB: I have a 16-year old daughter that gets her driver’s license this week. I have spent an inordinate amount of time, as has the education system in Maryland, to prepare her for what she is about to embark on. As much as I can control my daughter, at some point she is going to get in the car on her own and the lessons that we have tried to teach her are going to sink in and put her in a safe environment or they’re not and the consequences could be tragic. It’s the same with the players. The older players who have been through the life experiences seem to have a better perspective on it. That does not preclude them from this problem, but some of the young players come into an environment with huge sums of money and not necessarily the life experience that go with that. At some point you try educate them as best you can as the league does and we do even before they play. But at some point they have to take these lessons to heart and they are going to be the ones to suffer the consequences one way or the other.

BB: I am not going to talk about a specific player but there are limitations morally, ethically and legally as to what a coach can do and dictate to a player. So when you talk about the balance between punitive measures and educational measures, clearly from a coaching standpoint and at the club level, we would lean more towards the educational measures to make sure that they are aware of the consequences of any action they might initiate.

Herman Edwards: You have to educate the players that it is not their right to play in the NFL. It is their privilege. That’s the first thing we try to tell our players when they walk through the door in Tampa Bay. With that privilege comes that you are looked upon as a leader in our community whether you like it or not. That’s part of being a professional football player. There are certain rules and regulations that you need to abide by and if you start straddling the fence, there are going to be some rules and harsh measures that are going to be taken and I think in our organization we do a pretty good job with our Player Programs to try to alleviate some of the problems before they get to a point where a player is going down the wrong road. A lot of times you can see things as an assistant coach in your meetings where a player might not be focusing on certain things and you have to deal with those issues then. You can’t wait because the game is more important. Because the most important thing is that when your player walks in that classroom, you’re trying to teach him that anything that affects him off the field, you have to address that as a coach.

HH: I’m not sure it will be something to vote on. We are talking about adopting practices to address a certain issue. We at the league have a responsibility to formulate policy and those are not usually put up for vote. They are just put out as information to the extent that there may be some policy changes. They would be announced maybe at the league meeting or before. But I don’t think this is a kind of issue that is going to produce a resolution or some legislative action. It is a matter that is to get everybody to understand the extent of the problem and the various facilities and avenues that are available to address it. The owners and the clubs are going to have to take responsibility and I think we saw a real awareness to do that. Pat Bowlen took the floor and admonished the other owners to take an active role to determine who was going to be on the team and they should have character as one of the important factors in making that decision.

HH: The Players Association has been involved in discussions with us and they have participated in a meeting the Commissioner held when he invited current players to discuss these issues. Gene Upshaw has been very supportive and recognizes that this is an issue that affects the players as well as the club. He told me that the players believe they have a significant responsibility for the image of the league and the veteran players have a role to play. It is fair to say that the NFLPA has been supportive with this issue.

HH: It’s hard measure results of policies or programs. It’s very hard to say whether the programs are responsible for the changes or whether we would be better or worse off without them. It’s just very difficult to measure those kinds of things. Any changes that we determine worthwhile are going to be implemented immediately. We are not on a timetable that has a target date. These coaches and the others members of those in the room now have a sense of awarement that the issues to need to be addressed and need to be addressed promptly.

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