FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was a guest on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" program on Friday morning from the NFL draft in Chicago, and he was asked about the investigation into New England Patriots underinflated footballs from the AFC Championship Game.
Goodell said it was his sense that the Wells report will be released soon, as the investigative part is over and attorney Ted Wells is now in the process of writing things up.
Goodell was then asked if he was prepared to apologize to the Patriots and owner Robert Kraft if the investigation reveals no wrongdoing.
"Well, no, because here’s the thing, and I’ve said this to Robert and I’ve said this publicly -- our job is to protect the integrity of the game," Goodell said on the program. "If there are questions about the potential for some type of violation, it’s our obligation to go find out whether it happened. There are 31 other teams that want to know that the rules were followed. I hope there is nothing from this. But we didn’t make any judgment about whether there was or wasn’t; we allowed Ted Wells to do that. That’s our job, and that’s what we’re going to do. I’m not going to apologize for doing our job."
At the Super Bowl, Kraft had said he expected an apology as a result of the investigation as well as public leaks.