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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and league executive Troy Vincent met with Charlie Strong on Sunday morning to discuss the Texas coach's "Core Values" system, which has garnered widespread attention following the dismissals of nine Longhorns players. Vincent, the NFL executive vice president of football operations, announced the meeting in a series of tweets, saying that the league also wants to improve its relationships with college programs. Texas offensive lineman Kennedy Estelle was dismissed from the program Tuesday, becoming the ninth player kicked off the team since Strong was hired in January. Two other players are suspended from the team for undisclosed reasons. Strong, who spent four years as Louisville's head coach prior to coming to Texas, has instituted the following five "Core Values" for his players: honesty, treating women with respect, no drugs, no stealing and no weapons. "Anytime a player is dismissed from this program, it hurts me," Strong said Tuesday following Estelle's dismissal. "We're here to help young men. We're not here to run young men off. That is not our job. We're here to help them. It just bothers you, because when you've been given opportunities, you want to make sure you have every resource available for them to be successful." The NFL and Goodell specifically have come under fire recently for their handling of multiple cases involving player discipline, including former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice's domestic violence case. Vincent told MMQB.com that while in Austin he and Goodell had breakfast with former players including Ty Detmer, who now is a high school coach in Austin, and that the meeting with players echoed some of the same themes they heard last Monday with a players group in New York. "Ty Detmer is a high school coach," Vincent said, "and he said, 'What kind of message are you sending when those two Pittsburgh players get arrested one day [Le'Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount, for marijuana use in a car] and are playing the next day?'" At one point during his meeting with Strong, Vincent told MMQB, the coach pointed at a picture in his office of his two daughters. He quoted Strong as saying, "This is a constant reminder to me. I just think about my daughters. No means no. Here, if you put your hands on a woman, you are through." Said Vincent: "The man is taking a stand. He made it clear that playing at Texas is a privilege, not a right. Basically, you have to be willing to let your best player go."
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