NFL’s Elaborate Security Network ‘It’s Set Up Just Like The FBI’ Joe Cadillic Private Investigator at Murphy & Associates, Inc. Top Contributor The uppermost level of the NFL’s security department is based at the league’s New York City headquarters and is comprised of about a dozen employees — the NFL won’t give a precise number — most of them decorated former law-enforcement officials. Jeffrey Miller, its chief security officer, was once Pennsylvania’s state police commissioner; his lead investigator is John Raucci, a former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he was the bureau’s top agent in London and helped coordinate the 2012 Olympics. Despite the bona fides, only the most potentially damaging cases — Michael Vick’s involvement in a dog fighting ring, former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis’s connection to a double murder in 1999, the New England Patriots videotaping opposing teams’ signals in 2007 — typically lead to loafers-on-the-ground investigations by the league office’s security staff. Another specialist within the league office, a former FBI agent, oversees security for the NFL draft and the Super Bowl, the league’s most visible events, often making preliminary plans years in advance. Another official supervises security at each of the league’s 32 stadiums, according to an individual familiar with the staff’s organization. On top of the FBI flavor inside the league office, a former FBI director will now be taking a deep look into how the NFL handled evidence in the Rice case: On Wednesday, the league appointed Robert S. Mueller III, who led the Bureau for a dozen years, to oversee an independent investigation. Before Miller was elevated to senior vice president in 2011, the league’s three previous security directors — Jack Danahy, Warren Welsh and Milt Ahlerich — were all former FBI executives, and when they built the second, considerably broader level of the NFL’s security machine, they used a familiar blueprint. Each NFL team is assigned a contractor, along with an associate investigator, to act as the league’s eyes and ears (many teams hire their own in-house security experts to protect their interests). Of the consultants assigned by the league, many have experience in federal law enforcement agencies — most commonly the FBI — and their directive is to establish knowledge of and comfort within the local legal setting. They get to know the area’s information brokers, and after player arrests or potential incidents of misconduct, the representative ferrets out information — often details that would never be made public — with the intention of sharing it with the league office. “You were the liaison between the league and the team,” said Bill Mattingly, a retired FBI agent who served as the NFL security representative to the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades until 2008. “If players got arrested you’d find out the details and tell the league.” Mattingly has also done work for the National Basketball Association. Each consultant is assigned a broader geographical area to monitor in addition to the confines of each team’s headquarters. The league stations a representative in both Honolulu and Las Vegas because, though there’s no team within hundreds of miles of either city, players might visit and could be tempted to find trouble. It’s also helpful to the league if its envoy is familiar with the local courts — any advantage to reach its prime directive: protecting the reputation of the league. “It’s set up just like the FBI,” said another former NFL team official. “Think of the 32 teams as field offices.” NFLs elaborate security network is supposed to protect league... washingtonpost Larry Wansley convinced himself long ago that three hours sleep is plenty. His thoughts kept him up anyway, but even if he did drift off, the chances were good that the phone - always next to his ear, whether at home or in a hotel room - would...
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:22:37 +0000
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