NFL Team Security Job Description Is Basically "Security-Footage Getter"

The NFL and Roger Goodell have claimed repeatedly there was no effort made to get the Revel Casino's elevator surveillance footage directly from the casino itself. (Goodell said he believed that would be illegal, something refuted by the New Jersey Attorney General's office the next day.) Here comes CBS News, casting even more doubt on either the NFL's story, its competence, or both:

In 2009, the NFL wrote up a job description, obtained by CBS News, that defined for teams the responsibilities of the team security director.

The description says the director is required to conduct: "personal visits to local casinos, night clubs, etc. requesting the cooperation of the establishments' management in the event a player or team employee is perceived as a potential problem."

A former NFL team security director who does not want to be identified told CBS News that in his career, there was never a case where he sought surveillance tapes from hotels, nightclubs or local law enforcement and did not obtain it.

Come to think of it, it does seem weird that the one time team and league security allegedly couldn't obtain a surveillance tape was the one time that tape happened to be released publicly and was so disturbing the NFL's only way to save face was to claim it had never seen it, even though league sources had been leaking the contents of the tape months earlier. A coincidence, I'm sure.

CBS News:

The job description also says "becoming a close and trusting liaison with federal state and local law enforcement agencies as well as other government entities, such as DMV, is essential." Security directors are required to "establish and maintain effective liaison on a confidential and professional basis with federal, state and local law enforcement officers and other public safety authorities."

The sort of chummy cop-league relationship, say, that leads law enforcement official to mail a DVD of the Ray Rice elevator video to the NFL office, unsolicited.

NFL and individual team security details are loaded with former cops and feds, many of them still working both jobs, many of them still with plenty of friends in local and state departments who can get them things through unofficial channels. (NFL chief security officer Jeffrey Miller was Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police; Ravens security director Darren Sanders spent nearly two decades as a detective in Baltimore PD's homicide unit.) It's tough to believe the league and the Ravens allegedly took no for an answer.

[ CBS News]