Former Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo backs away from NFL domestic violence comments

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Former Chicago Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo is backing away from an assertion he made to a newspaper that "hundreds of hundreds" of domestic violence incidents were ignored by the NFL during his time in the league.

The former executive says he was embellishing to the reporter to underscore how the Ray Rice domestic violence affair has changed the thinking of some people around pro football. But the newspaper, USA Today, stands by its story.

Angelo says his comments were taken out of context by USA Today reporter Josh Peter when Angelo declared the NFL overlooked domestic violence incidents during his time in the league.

"I have seen a lot of changes and there were hundreds and hundreds of things over those years that I have seen that have gotten better," Angelo said. "And domestic violence obviously is one of those, and I shared with him a situation that I had personally, and how I grew and understood a lot more as we all have, not just the NFL but society as a whole; and that was the intent."

Angelo was a guest on the Comcast SportsNet's "Kap and Haugh" show Friday, where the hosts implored him to be clear about what he meant to say.

"He is an inelegant speaker," David Haugh said. "He says things he doesn't mean and sometimes that gets the focus."

"We have had our situations there under my tenure they were well documented," said Angeleo. "We made mistakes, but we never justified mistakes."

Angelo said he was speaking to USA Today about NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, whom Angelo supports. The commissioner is developing a new personal conduct policy for the league and has faced calls for his resignation after suspending Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice initially for just two games, a sentence that became indefinite after the video surfaced of him knocking his wife out in a casino elevator earlier this year.

"I feel bad that this has gone to another level which I have no idea how it got there," Angelo said. "I don't want to say this fellow twisted my words but that was never my intent."

Angelo did not did he seek to clarify other statements he made in the USA Today article, including that he was sorry he did not do more to address domestic violence. The paper today stuck by its story.

The Bears earlier said they did not know what Angelo was talking about in terms of hundreds of hundreds of incidents.

Angelo says he has not talked to former FBI director Robert Mueller, whom the NFL has hired to investigate how the league handled the Ray Rice incident.