Former NFL general manager, Jerry Angelo, who spent 30 years in the league in a variety of roles, says that teams covered up "hundreds and hundreds" of domestic violence incidents during his career.
Angelo, whose most recent stint with the Chicago Bears ended in 2011, says he now regrets the role he played in allowing these players to get away, punishment-free.
"I made a mistake,'' Jerry Angelo told USA TODAY Sports. "I was human. I was part of it. I'm not proud of it.''
He said that, typically, after learning of an incident, he would ask "OK, is everybody OK? Yeah. How are they doing? Good. And then we'd just move on. We'd move on.''
Angelo says that he and the other teams knew exactly what they were doing - they knew it was wrong, and yet they made no effort to change the system or rectify the situation.
"We knew it was wrong,'' Angelo said. "...For whatever reason, it just kind of got glossed over. I'm no psychiatrist, so I can't really get into what that part of it is. I'm just telling you how I was. I've got to look at myself first. And I was part of that, but I didn't stand alone.''
He claimed that his and other's opinions around the league changed with the Ray Rice incident and the release of video showing Rice knocking out his then-fiancée in an Atlantic City elevator before dragging her unconscious body out into the hallway.
"It was the pictures, it was the video,'' he said. "We had never seen that before. I had never seen video on domestic violence. I think that's what got everybody's attention.''
Angelo claims that the driving force behind the league-wide cover-ups was the need to stay competitive.
"Our business is to win games," Angelo said. "We've got to win games, and the commissioner's job is to make sure the credibility of the National Football League is held in the highest esteem. But to start with that, you have to know who's representing the shield. We got our priorities a little out of order."
