Former Bears GM: 'hundreds' of domestic violence cases unreported in NFL

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Former Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo claims that during his 30 years in the NFL there were "hundreds and hundreds" of cases of domestic violence that went unreported by teams.

Angelo, who was Bears GM from 2001-2011, told the USA Today he putting winning before principle, saying he would not report cases of domestic violence to the league because he didn't want those players suspended.

"I made a mistake," he tells the paper. "I was human. I was part of it. I'm not proud of it."

Though Angelo doesn't name names, he says his typical approach to learning about domestic abuse by a player was to ask: "OK, is everybody OK? Yeah. How are they doing? Good. And then we'd just move on. We knew it was wrong."

"My first reaction was 'wow,'" says Daily Herald sports columnist Mike Imrem. "My second reaction was, this was kind of the culture of what you'd expect of the NFL. Their culture is to win and make money."

Angelo's comments come as the NFL tries to turn the corner on its much-criticized handling of the ray rice domestic abuse case.

Ignoring calls to resign, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced in September the appointment of three women to shape the NFL's domestic abuse policies.

Thursday, the Bears, in a statement, said, "We were surprised by Jerry's comments and do not know what he is referring to."

On ESPN radio, Mike Ditka had harsher words about Angelo.

"It's gutless. It's gutless on his part," Ditka said. "If you didn't do anything about it when you were running the team, shut up. Don't live in the past. Period."

In the article, Angelo says his new perspective came after watching that now-infamous Ray Rice elevator video. ABC 7 Eyewitness News' attempts to reach Angelo Thursday were not successful.