Former White House staffer hired to represent NFL in Washington

The NFL on Tuesday announced the hiring of Cynthia C. Hogan, a former White House official who worked with the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Violence Against Women Act, which became law 20 years ago.

Hogan, longtime counsel to Vice President Joe Biden, has been named the league’s senior vice president of public policy and government affairs. She will be based in Washington and is assigned to develop and implement the league’s public policy and legislative initiatives, as well as working with teams on the state and local issues.

“Cynthia’s broad experience on a wide range of public policy issues will help advance our initiatives in Washington and around the country,” Paul Hicks, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications and public affairs, said in a written statement.

Although Hogan will work on domestic-violence issues with Anna Isaacson, recently hired as the league’s vice president of social responsibility, she will represent the league in Washington on various other issues, among them the future of the blackout policy and the league’s tax status.

Hogan is the NFL’s first female top lobbyist. The announcement of her hiring comes a day after the league announced the hiring of Isaacson, and of Lisa Friel, Jane Randel and Rita Smith as senior advisors to Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Friel was head of the sex crimes prosecution unit in the New York County district attorney’s office for more than a decade. Randel is co-founder of No More, a national initiative to raise the profile of and normalize the conversation about domestic violence and sexual assault. Smith is the former executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Goodell and the league have been under intense scrutiny in the wake of the domestic-abuse scandal surrounding former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, and the indictment of Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson on child-abuse charges.