By Mae Anderson, Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The war of words is heating up for the NFL, with PepsiCo Inc. CEO Indra Nooyi the latest major Super Bowl advertiser to make a pointed statement about the league.
Nooyi said she was "deeply disturbed" by the "repugnant behavior of a few players and the NFL's acknowledged mishandling of these issues," in a statement late Wednesday.
Pepsi, which sponsors the league via its namesake brand, Gatorade sports drink and Frito-Lay snack division, is one of the biggest NFL sponsors. The league and its teams have come under fire over the past two weeks over how it is dealing with several players with domestic violence allegations against them. An investigation has been launched into whether Commissioner Roger Goodell knew about or saw a video of Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice hitting his then-fiancee earlier than he said.
Most major sponsors have voiced disapproval, with Anheuser-Busch, another one of the NFL's biggest sponsors, saying it was "increasingly concerned" about the situation.
But despite the lip service, it would be difficult for a sponsor to actually give up on the NFL. An average of 17.4 million people tune in during a regular season NFL game, about 65 percent men and 35 percent women, according to Nielsen. During the Super Bowl, that ratchets up to 111.5 million watchers.
Nooyi said she supports Roger Goodell, calling him a "man of integrity," and praised the decision to hire three women executives to help shape its domestic violence policies.
"The reality for Commissioner Goodell and the NFL is that they now have an opportunity to effect positive change with the situation presented to them," she said in a statement.
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AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman in New York contributed to this report.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults โ two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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