{"id":450507,"date":"2026-02-03T05:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/450507\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T05:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:02:09","slug":"roger-goodell-says-before-nfl-considers-investigating-giants-co-owner-steve-tisch-league-must-understand-the-facts-of-ties-to-jeffrey-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/450507\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger Goodell says before NFL considers investigating Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, league must ‘understand the facts’ of ties to Jeffrey Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE, Calif. \u2014 NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday the league hasn\u2019t begun investigating emails between New York Giants<\/a> co-owner Steve Tisch and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, choosing to first \u201cunderstand the facts\u201d of the exchanges.<\/p>\n

Goodell was pressed multiple times by reporters about emails between Tisch and Epstein that were among 3 million documents released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice<\/a>. The documents, which discussed interactions with various women, were drawn from multiple investigations into the disgraced billionaire financier, who was arrested in July of 2019 and charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. Epstein subsequently died by suicide one month later in his New York City jail cell while awaiting trial.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Asked if the league was probing the interactions between Tisch and Epstein and considering discipline for the Giants co-owner, Goodell said during his pre-Super Bowl news conference that the league was aware of the emails but had not yet advanced to the point of an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may be getting ahead of yourself on the second part,\u201d Goodell said of the consideration of discipline for Tisch. \u201cWe are going to look at all the facts. We are going to look at the context of those and try to understand that \u2014 we will look at how that falls under the [NFL\u2019s personal conduct] policy. But let\u2019s get the facts first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EAST<\/p>\n

Giants co-owner Steve Tisch said in a statement that his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was a “brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments.” (Photo by Rich Graessle\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Asked to clarify if that meant Tisch was under investigation, Goodell again said the NFL would first attempt to determine the \u201cfacts\u201d and then conclude whether they warranted an investigation.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know the status of all the [DOJ\u2019s document] release,\u201d he said. \u201cI know that 3 million documents came out last week. Listen, we\u2019ll continue to follow any of the facts that come up and determine if we open an investigation based on those facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tisch\u2019s name appeared more than 400 times in documents from Friday\u2019s DOJ release, some including passing social interactions between the two men and others with specific \u2014 and sometimes graphic \u2014 conversations about several women whose names were redacted in the files. The emails covered a period of time several years after Epstein had served nearly 13 months in the Palm Beach Country jail, after he pled guilty to a pair of Florida state charges, including engaging in prostitution with an underage girl.<\/p>\n

Included in the exchanges, Tisch asked Epstein various questions about women, including if one was a \u201cworking girl\u201d or if another was \u201cpro or civilian.\u201d In one email, Epstein asks Tisch, \u201cDid you contact the great ass fake [expletive]\u2026\u201d in reference to a person whose name was redacted. The Athletic was the first to report the existence of the emails after the DOJ release Friday. In response, Tisch issued a statement through the Giants, describing his relationship to Epstein as \u201ca brief association\u201d that he regretted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments,\u201d Tisch said in the statement. \u201cI did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Goodell didn\u2019t go into detail about how the league would determine \u201cfacts\u201d as a guiding compass to determine if a broader investigation into Tisch would be necessary \u2014 but affirmed that the broader scope of the Epstein investigation and that an NFL club owner being drawn into a document release was reason for concern. But he pointed to the league\u2019s personal conduct policy as being an available guardrail should the actions of team owners reflect badly on the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we have a personal conduct policy and [the league] will look into the facts,\u201d Goodell said.<\/p>\n

In the released documents, Tisch offered Epstein tickets to Giants games, while Epstein offered to host Epstein at his private island in the Caribbean. Epstein also had emails with women who were seeking to associate with Tisch based on his experience as a producer in Hollywood. Tisch has producer credits on multiple critically acclaimed or cult hit movies over several decades, including \u201cRisky Business,\u201d \u201cForrest Gump,\u201d \u201cAmerican History X,\u201d \u201cThe Long Kiss Goodnight,\u201d and \u201cThe Pursuit of Happyness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if Tisch\u2019s communications with Epstein constitute an element of a personal conduct violation, although the league\u2019s language for determining an infraction is largely in the hands of Goodell and the influence of other franchise owners. The eight-page personal conduct policy reads in part:<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone who is part of the league must refrain from \u2018conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in\u2019 the NFL. It is not enough simply to avoid being found guilty of a crime in a court of law. We are all held to a higher standard and must conduct ourselves in a way that is responsible, promotes the values of the NFL, and is lawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding team owners, members of franchise management and members of the league office, it adds, \u201cOwnership and club or league management have traditionally been held to a higher standard and will be subject to more significant discipline when violations of the Personal Conduct Policy occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most notable punishments incurred under the personal conduct policy were workplace misconduct investigations into a pair of club owners: The Washington Commanders\u2019 Dan Snyder and the Carolina Panthers\u2019 Jerry Richardson. After each was found to have committed infractions of the policy, Snyder was fined $60 million by the NFL, while Richardson was docked $2.75 million. Both eventually sold their teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE, Calif. \u2014 NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday the league hasn\u2019t begun investigating emails between New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,1744,28461,12208,1728,514,185445,185444,24178,82,185443,1758],"class_list":["post-450507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-investigation","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-personal-conduct","tag-personal-conduct-policy","tag-roger-goodell","tag-sports","tag-steve-tisch","tag-washington-commanders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}