The NFL season kicked off on the annual Corridor of Fame recreation Thursday night time with a second of silence for the 4 individuals killed earlier this week by a shooter who was concentrating on league headquarters in New York.
The gunman additionally wounded a league worker within the taking pictures Monday night time. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell informed NBC he visited the worker for an hour on Wednesday and mentioned the person was bettering.
Goodell stayed in New York to attend the funeral for police officer Didarul Islam, who was working a personal safety element when he was killed within the taking pictures.
“It hits home, the loss, the unnecessary and unexplainable loss, and it’s something all of us, you know, as New Yorkers feel great pride in the NYPD and what they do, and all the first first responders,” Goodell said. “So it was a difficult, emotional afternoon, but also a tremendous, heartwarming service.”
There was elevated safety round Tom Benson Stadium, the place Eric Allen, Jared Allen, Antonio Gates and Sterling Sharpe might be inducted into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame on Saturday.
“That’s real life and it’s unfortunate that we live in a space right now that’s a possibility and it’s becoming a situation where if you’re a parent, that’s the first thing you think about is workplace safety for your child or for your loved ones,” Eric Allen informed The Related Press. “And for it to specifically be the National Football League, the opening week is tonight, Hall of Fame is Saturday, and the game has made so many great strides, but it’s just an example of there’s still work to be done.”
The funeral was held Thursday for Blackstone government Wesley LePatner. NBC New York’s Adam Kuperstein reviews.
The league held a digital city corridor Wednesday, giving workers a possibility to attach and share assets. Goodell informed workers on Tuesday they may work remotely at the least by way of the top of subsequent week as a result of league workplaces could be closed.
Investigators imagine Shane Tamura, 27, of Las Vegas, was attempting to get to the NFL workplaces after taking pictures a number of individuals within the constructing’s foyer, then one other in a Thirty third-floor workplace on Monday, earlier than he killed himself, authorities mentioned.
Police mentioned Tamura had a historical past of psychological sickness, and a rambling be aware discovered on his physique advised that he had a grievance in opposition to the NFL over a declare that he suffered from power traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative mind illness that may be recognized solely by inspecting the mind after an individual dies.
Tamura performed highschool soccer in California a decade in the past however by no means within the NFL.
“It is a difficult thing, particularly when you are dealing with senseless acts like this,” Goodell mentioned. “They’re onerous for all of us to know, when it inflicts ache on individuals and folks you care about and folks that we cope with each day, that’s significantly onerous.
“As you know these acts of senseless violence and hatred are happening around our country and our world, far too often in schools and churches and synagogues and other places, this should just not be happening. But we all have to continue to be vigilant and do what we can to protect ourselves and the NFL’s going to do that with our employees and our people.”
An immigrant from Bangladesh, Islam was constructing a profession within the nation’s largest police drive. He served as a faculty security agent earlier than turning into a patrol officer lower than 4 years in the past, and was promoted posthumously Thursday to detective. NBC New York’s Sarah Wallace reviews.
