Blumenthal tries to be super-referee of NFL

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) participates in a news conference to highlight the benefits of raising the national minimum wage at the U.S. Capitol March 27, 2014 in Washington, DC. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) participates in a news conference to highlight the benefits of raising the national minimum wage at the U.S. Capitol March 27, 2014 in Washington, DC. Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Blumenthal tries to be super-referee of NFL 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is not one to swallow his whistle.

Not for all that afflicts the National Football League, whether it be the long-standing policy of blacking out games that don't sell out in local television markets, the Washington Redskins naming controversy or its efforts to curtail domestic violence following the arrests of Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson.

Blumenthal has made a practice of policing the NFL during his first four years in the Senate.

His name is attached to two bills that could threaten the NFL's business model, which hinges upon a anti-trust exemption that allows teams to collaborate in the negotiation of billion-dollar sponsorships and other deals.

"It's the keys to the kingdom," Blumenthal said. "They have a public trust to do better."

Blumenthal's public flogging of the NFL, which declined to comment for this story, is not without its critics.

"Richard, pipe down," Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo, a sports talk channel host on SiriusXM Satellite Radio and New Canaan resident, said in an interview. "It's sounds like a politician that smells blood and 'let's make a little noise.' The NFL is a wounded animal."

Domestic violence

On Tuesday, Blumenthal introduced the Sustained Promotion Of Responsibility in Team Sports (SPORTS) Act, which would force all four major professional sports leagues to mete out tougher penalties for domestic violence and provide more funding to programs for victims. Failure to comply could result in the loss of the anti-trust exemption, which would no longer be permanent and would become subject to renewal every five years. A commission would evaluate the response of the leagues.

"They should really be providing hundreds of millions of dollars to assist domestic violence survivors, given the revenues that they receive," Blumenthal said of the NFL.

In September, the NFL hired Cynthia Hogan, a former deputy assistant in the Obama administration, to revamp its domestic violence policies and try to repair its image. Hogan reports to Paul Hicks III, the NFL's top lobbyist and spin doctor who is a constituent of Blumenthal's -- both reside in Greenwich. Hicks declined to comment.

Blumenthal is a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which held a hearing Tuesday on domestic violence in professional sports. Blumenthal said NFL executive and former player Troy Vincent committed $25 million of league funds over five years to a national domestic violence hot line.

"So that kind of action is encouraging," said Blumenthal, the lone sponsor of the SPORTS Act.

This season has been one of scandal for the NFL, with two of its star running backs in Rice and Peterson arrested for domestic violence.

"We all know the NFL did a terrible job of handling this thing," Russo said.

Rice was cut by the Baltimore Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the league after video footage surfaced of him knocking out his then-fiancee at an Atlantic City, N.J., casino and dragging her unconscious body out of an elevator. The suspension of Rice, whose original punishment by the NFL cost him two games, was recently overturned by a former federal judge, who ruled that his rights were violated.

"The NFL must be more aggressive and must establish a sound process for applying punishment so that it avoids the kind of debacle that happened with Ray Rice and the reversal of that punishment," Blumenthal said.

The Vikings' Peterson is appealing his indefinite suspension following his arrest on child-abuse charges.

Television broadcasts

This was a busy week for Blumenthal and the NFL, with the Democrat calling on the league to drop its long-standing blackout policy during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday. A bill co-sponsored by Blumenthal and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would rescind the NFL's anti-trust exemption for noncompliance. Since taxpayers often subsidize stadiums, Blumenthal said the games should be televised.

In 2012, the league softened its stance of blacking out games that don't sell out 72 hours before kickoff. It now requires 85 percent of tickets to be sold. While just a handful of games have been blacked out in recent years, the Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals were in danger of having their home playoff games blacked out in January until local businesses bought the unsold tickets.

The last time the New York Giants and Jets had a game blacked out was 1975 and 1977, respectively. The New England Patriots had their last blackout in 1993.

"You don't have to worry about blackouts in Connecticut, dope," said Russo, who was a fixture on WFAN with Mike Francesa for 19 years in New York City. "... There's a million games on."

Blumenthal has weighed in on yet another NFL controversy -- the naming of the Washington Redskins.

"I'm inclined to think they should rename the team, but I'm focusing on the blackout issue for right now," Blumenthal said in January.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy