Relocation of Chargers part of Roger Goodell’s Super Bowl news conference

HOUSTON — Relocation of NFL franchises, a hot-button topic in pro football for the past year, remained a focus of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s questioners Wednesday leading to Super Bowl LI.

Las Vegas, San Diego and Oakland were the primary subjects, but St. Louis, which lost the Rams a year ago, also was addressed by the commissioner.

In the case of Las Vegas, Goodell made it clear that owners need a lot more information prior to their scheduled meetings in March in Phoenix, where a vote might be taken regarding Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis and his application for relocation.

“It’s one we’re considering carefully,’’ Goodell said.

San Diego, which lost its beloved Chargers when board chairman Dean Spanos declared last month that the franchise was leaving for Los Angeles, was not ruled out as a potential NFL city by the commissioner. Recently, the Raiders have come up in speculation regarding a potential move to San Diego.

“I think for any team to relocate to San Diego at this point in time, we’re going to have to find a solution to that stadium problem, one that we couldn’t do after probably 15 years of effort,’’ Goodell said. “That doesn’t mean it can’t happen in the future. In fact, there is a history of markets that get these (stadium) projects done once a team leaves. That’s unfortunate because I think that’s a painful way to do it.’’

Regarding St. Louis, the commissioner said the league remained open to overtures from the community about a return to Missouri.

Other topics Goodell addressed included:

■ The commissioner’s conspicuous absence this season from Gillette Stadium in light of the league’s severe penalties assessed to the New England Patriots in the infamous “Deflategate’’ investigation.

“I would tell you that it is not awkward at all for me,’’ Goodell said of the situation, which this week included the stinging criticism by the father of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who was suspended for the first four games of the regular season. “We have a job to do … there was a violation. We applied a process and discipline.’’

Goodell called the debacle a “disagreement.’’

“I’ll be honest with you: I have disagreements with probably all 32 of our teams,’’ he said. “I’m not afraid of disagreement, and I don’t think disagreement leads to distrust or hatred. It’s just a disagreement.’’

Later, when asked if he thought he was welcome in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Goodell said: “By whom? … I have no doubt that if I wanted to come up to a Patriots game, and I asked (team owner) Mr. (Robert) Kraft, he would welcome me back. That’s up to him, though.’’

■ How revamped NFL domestic violence policies are applied.

“I think we’ve made very important progress, not only on domestic violence but personal conduct policies in general,’’ said the commissioner. “We’ve seen in the last two years since we implemented this policy (a) 40 percent reduction each year … in the number of arrests.’’

■ The future of Thursday night football, which Goodell said is “something that we are very committed to’’ as the No. 2-rated prime-time TV show on NBC last year and No. 4 on CBS.

■ Regarding falling TV ratings during the 2016 season, Goodell said, “We have been focused on this long before this year.

“What we’re trying to do is to make our product as exciting and our games as exciting and as action-packed as possible,’’ he said, including finding ways to speed up instant replay so that officials can make a decision more quickly.

Jon Mark Saraceno can be reached at jsaraceno@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jonnysaraceno on Twitter.