Majority of NFL fans want Goodell to stay

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

There is a lot of controversy in the NFL with the handling of domestic violence incidents with players and the increasing demand for the Washington organization to change the team name. However, despite a turbulent season people who watch the game don't want to show Goodell the door.

According to an AP-GfK poll 32 percent say Goodell should lose his job over the domestic violence issue, with 66 percent saying he shouldn’t. Despite support for Goodell not to be fired fans were not so kind when asked about how he handled the Ray Rice incident.

After Goodell suspended Rice for only two games even Goodell himself admitted that he got it wrong and 42 percent of fans agree with him. Almost the exact same percentage had no opinion and a mere 15 percent believe he did get it right.

Fans are justifiably unforgiving of Rice himself for him striking his then fiancee in an elevator. When asked whether he should play again 43 percent said he should never see the field again, 7 percent say he should be playing right now, and 49 percent said he should be permitted to return after missing more time. A gender gap was revealed on this issue with over half of the women supporting a life time ban for Rice while only 37 percent of men had a similar view. There was also a stark difference racially with only 19 percent of black fans support banning Rice with 46 percent of white fans supporting a ban.

These numbers could change drastically once the Mueller investigation is complete. Should there be any wrong doing found on Goodell's part I'm sure a lot more fans (and owners) will want a new commissioner.

Something to keep in consideration is whether the law firm that Mueller works for has a biased toward a favorable outcome for Goodell. In an interview on CNN Rachel Nichols asked Goodell:

"You guys paid that law firm to help you negotiate some television deals. The president of the Ravens, who will be key in this whole investigation, worked at that law firm for more than 30 years. Why hire someone with even the appearance of impropriety and how do you expect us to accept everything?"

Goodell responded:

I respectfully disagree... You are questioning the integrity of the director of the FBI. Yes, that firm has represented us in the past. They have also been on the other side in litigation against the NFL. So this is a highly respected individual, the longest serving director in the FBI.

Do you believe Goodell should keep his job? Do you think Mueller will conduct a thorough and fair investigation? Let us know in the comments section!

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**The AP-GfK Poll was conducted Sept. 25-29 using KnowledgePanel, GfK’s probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population. It included online interviews with 1,845 adults, including 836 NFL fans. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for all respondents and plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for the NFL fans.**