Report: Roger Goodell Cancels Appearance At 49ers Game

Roger Goodell has reportedly had a last-minute change-of-heart about attending tonight's 49ers home opener, despite having had his appearance scheduled for a couple years.

CSN Bay Area reports:

Embattled NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will not follow-through on his 2012 promise to attend the regular-season opener at Levi's Stadium, a source said.

As late as Friday evening the 49ers were expecting Goodell to attend Sunday night's nationally televised game against the Chicago Bears to open the 49ers' $1.2 billion stadium.

"I think he's scheduled to come," 49ers president Paraag Marathe told NBC Bay Area's Raj Mathai on Friday night.

Goodell is under fire from all sides for his handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence case, and any appearance would open him up to questions about how the league plans to act on Adrian Peterson's child abuse charge.

Not helping matters is the fact that the 49ers apparently plan to start DE Ray McDonald, who was arrested on felony domestic violence charges and is accused of hitting his pregnant fiancée.

Jim Harbaugh spoke out strongly earlier this month against any players who commit domestic violence, saying they would be off his team. And again this week Harbaugh said "there is no understanding for domestic violence. No understanding for striking or abusing a woman in any manner." But McDonald, who remains under investigation and has not been charged, remains active.

Come to think of it, where the hell is Roger Goodell? The NFL is having one of its worst, most controversial weeks in history, and the man nominally in charge of the place hasn't been seen or heard from in days. (In Goodell's last "public" appearance, he was kicking media out of a tackling-safety PR lovefest at a North Carolina high school.)