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Gerry Fraley / Reporter


NFL commissioner Roger Goodell today promised a "thorough review'' of why two sections at Cowboys Stadium had to be closed off for Sunday's Super Bowl.

"We don't have all the answers,'' Goodell said after a morning session in which he presented Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers with the Super Bowl MVP trophy. "We put on this event. It is the responsibility of the NFL. It was obviously a failure on our part. We take responsibility for that.

"We had a lot to deal with this week. But there's no eexuse when you put on an event like this. You know we're going to have those challenges. We're used to those sort of things.''

Eric Grubman, the NFL executive vice president for business ventures, indicated that while the league has control of the stadium leading up to the game, the Dallas Cowboys' role will be reviewed, too.

"It's a shared responsibility,'' Grubman said. "It's our overall ability to manage it. We have to look carefully at the key steps along the way.''

According to Grubman, the sections that were closed were part of the original seating plan and were not part of an attempt to set a game attendance record. He said the league realized during the middle of last week that there coule be a problem completing the sections.

Work continued until Sunday afternooon, when it was determined the necessary safety measures could not be completed. The NFL, in conjunction with the Arlington police and fire departments, decided at that point to close the sections.

"At the end, we just ran out of time,'' Grubman said. "When something goes wrong, everybody has responsibility."

"We'll figure out what the key steps were. Which ones were ours, and which ones were someone else's, and we'll address them.''

Goodell said the about 400 paying customers who were unable to watch the game from inside Cowboys Stadium will be invited to next year's Super Bowl as league guests. Goodell also said the North Texas committee did well under the circumstances, which included poor weather. He also thanked Cowboys owner-general manager Jerry Jones for his contributions.

"North Texas did a great job,'' Goodell said. "As I've said all week, we had many challenges this week as we did throughout the country. The weather issue affected the entire country. The leadership here did an outstanding job.''
 
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