The Sports Xchange

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will spend time with Republican members of the House of Representatives this week.

According to Politico.com, Goodell is holding several large-scale private meetings with House Republicans, including sessions with top GOP leaders.

Goodell will meet with Rep. Steve Scalise’s majority whip team on Monday in the Capitol. Scalise’s former senior aide, Nicole Gustafson, is one of the NFL’s top D.C. lobbyists as vice president for public policy and government affairs.

On Tuesday, House Republican Conference chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers is holding what she calls a “Power House Lunch” with more than 40 lawmakers to “hear leadership lessons” from Goodell. The commissioner also will meet with a group of GOP chiefs of staff.

Goodell’s father, Charles Goodell of New York, was a Republican member of the House between 1963 and 1968, and served in the Senate between 1968 and 1971.

The NFL has come under fire from both sides of the political aisle. Democratic senators have pressured the league to change the Washington Redskins nickname, and Republican senators have attacked the blackout rule and the league’s tax-exempt status. The NFL has yielded on the blackout rule and tax-exempt status.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has endlessly criticized the Redskins nickname as being offensive to Native Americans, and did so again Thursday after a federal judge ordered the cancellation of the Redskins’ federal trademark registration.

The Redskins lost in court Wednesday when U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee — in his 70-page ruling — ordered the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to schedule cancellation of six federal trademark registrations owned by the club. The Redskins plan to appeal the decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the most important political topic from the league’s perspective continues to be the broadcast antitrust exemption, which allows the NFL to bundle TV rights across the entire 32-team spectrum, which ensures economic balance.

Goodell is expected to have a busy agenda, with a decision on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s appeal of his four-game suspension possibly coming this week.

Goodell told CNBC on Thursday from a tech conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, where Patriots owner Robert Kraft was also present, a decision “is coming soon.”

Brady appealed a four-game suspension on June 23 at NFL headquarters in New York. The investigation began following the AFC Championship game when 11 of 12 game balls tested at halftime of the Patriots’ win over the Indianapolis Colts were found to be below PSI minimums.