CANTON, Ohio – The NFL season kicked off at the annual Hall of Fame game Thursday night with a moment of silence for the four people killed earlier this week by a shooter who was targeting league headquarters in New York.
The gunman also wounded a league employee in the shooting Monday night. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told NBC he visited the employee for an hour on Wednesday and said he was improving.
There was increased security around Tom Benson Stadium, where Eric Allen, Jared Allen, Antonio Gates and Sterling Sharpe will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall 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 told The Associated 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 league held a virtual town hall Wednesday, giving employees an opportunity to connect and share resources. Goodell told employees on Tuesday they could work remotely at least through the end of next week because league offices would be closed.
Investigators believe Shane Tamura, 27, of Las Vegas, was trying to get to the NFL offices after shooting several people in the building’s lobby, then another in a 33rd-floor office on Monday, before he killed himself, authorities said.
Police said Tamura had a history of mental illness, and a rambling note found on his body suggested that he had a grievance against the NFL over a claim that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease that can be diagnosed only by examining the brain after a person dies.
Tamura played high school football in California a decade ago but never in the NFL.
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