When those words left Adams’s mouth, Goodell betrayed no emotion.

Asked about Adams’s comments in a brief interview with reporters afterward, Goodell tried to play them down.

“What he was really making the point of is how much he loves the game and how passionate he is of the game — that he loves playing it, and it’s just something that means a great deal to him,” Goodell said.

Asked how he perceived the fans’ applause, Goodell said it reflected their enthusiasm for football.

“I think the fans understood the emotion of what he was saying,” Goodell said.

The forum Monday, which also included running back Matt Forte, was one of the commissioner’s first speaking engagements since last week’s release of a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association revealing that 110 of 111 donated brains from N.F.L. players showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease connected to repeated head trauma. The disease, also known as C.T.E., is associated with symptoms including depression, dementia and memory loss.

One caveat of the study was that the brains came from families who were concerned that the player had exhibited signs of C.T.E., which diminished the randomness of the sample. Goodell did not address that particular study, instead reiterating previous statements that the league has made several rule changes to reduce risks and is investing millions of dollars into research, but he underplayed the general effectiveness of concussion studies.

“I think the one thing everyone agrees on is there’s an awful lot more questions than there are answers at this point,” Goodell said.