Shortly after a bombshell report from ESPN's Outside the Lines about the Patriots dropped on Tuesday morning, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appeared on Mike & Mike on ESPN radio.

He was asked minimal questions about the report, but he was questioned about his role in the discipline process and said he is "very open to changing" his role. 

"I’m very open to changing my role in that. It’s become extremely time-consuming. I think I have to be focused on a variety of other issues. And that’s what I’ve discussed with many owners over the last couple of years," Goodell said. "We believe a discipline officer or some type of a panel, who could make at least the initial decision and then a designee of mine on some type of appeal would be a better system.

"But we also have some resistance to a third-party arbitration. We believe the standards of the NFL are important to uphold. We believe you don’t delegate that responsibility or those standards. We believe someone with a deep knowledge of the game and our policies and our rules are important particularly when it relates to competitive violations."

This is essentially Goodell admitting he sees the writing on the wall when it comes to player disicipline in the NFL. At some point there is going to be a change for the way the league handles discipline.

The question is whether or not it's done by the new CBA. Based on Goodell's approach to answering the question, it sounds like it will be sooner rather than later. 

There’s got to be a system somewhere in there and I think the challenge is for all of us to come up with that.

Roger Goodell says he's open to changing his role on player discipline.(USATSI)
Roger Goodell says he's open to changing his role on player discipline. (USATSI)