Roger Goodell Expected To Be A No-Show At 49ers Game

Roger Goodell Cancels Appearance At 49ers Game

UPDATE: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell did not show up to the 49ers game on Sunday night though he had been scheduled to make an appearance. Pressure has been building on Goodell to resign in the wake of a domestic violence scandal involving former Ravens star Ray Rice.

Earlier from HuffPost:

Facing intense criticism in light of the Ray Rice probe, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reportedly intends to renege on a long-standing promise to attend the San Francisco 49ers' season opener at Levi's Stadium on Sunday, according to Comcast Sportsnet.

"I think [Goodell is] scheduled to come," 49ers President Paraag Marathe told NBC Bay Area's Raj Mathai on Friday night. "He usually comes to most stadium openings, so I expect him to."

The commissioner had pledged to attend Sunday's game back in April 2012, when construction on Levi's Stadium first began. It's unclear where Goodell actually plans to be during the game, which starts at 8:30 p.m. EST Sunday.

Goodell's anticipated no-show caps off what Gary Myers at the New York Daily News has called the "worst week in the history of the NFL." On Sept. 8, TMZ released a video that showed Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee Janay Palmer unconscious in an elevator in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Soon after the tape was made public, Rice was released from the Ravens and indefinitely suspended by the NFL -- a punishment that some critics have called too little, too late.

On Saturday, in a separate incident, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was jailed, then released for a child abuse charge. In May, Peterson allegedly struck his 4-year-old son with a switch hard enough to leave the boy with multiple cuts and bruises.

Goodell maintains that he did not see the most graphic portion of the Ray Rice video until recently, although reports indicate the NFL may have been sent a copy of the tape months ago.

A previously released version of the tape showed footage of Rice dragging Palmer's unconscious body out of the elevator, but did not actually show the punch that knocked Palmer out. After the initial video was made public in February, Rice's punishment for domestic violence was a hotly criticized two-game suspension in July.

For many onlookers, who point out that the NFL has a track record of imposing only mild punishments on players accused of domestic violence, there's little question about what the commissioner ought to do.

"The only workable solution is for Roger Goodell to resign," Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, told The Boston Globe this week. "New leadership must come in with a specific charge to transform the culture of violence against women that pervades the NFL."

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