MKRob Sports

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday that while he’s troubled by playoff teams resting key players in late-season games, he does not have a mechanism to prevent it right now.

Goodell said last week the league would look into solutions, including possible incentives so that teams that have clinched playoff berths continue to play hard in late-season games

Here’s what he said Friday on ESPN Radio (via PFT):

“Honestly, we don’t have a solution for it. We’ve had a lot of suggestions. A lot of people have talked about things from making scheduling changes to re-seeding the playoffs. A couple people have suggested the idea of potentially modifying the draft in certain ways. But none of these have been studied in depth.”

The Colts’ decision to rest key players in Week 16, when they lost their first game, shot the issue into the forefront. Goodell said the league will continue to study it.

“The integrity of the game is the most important thing,” Goodell told ESPN. “We want to make sure the games all season long have meaning. … We want to make sure the best players are playing to win.”