Watch a live stream of Commissioner Roger Goodell talk about the recent Ray Rice abuse scandal here, via CNN live streaming. Click here.

Roger Goodell will make his first public statement about the Ray Rice abuse scandal after more than a week of NFL players involved in domestic violence cases have surfaced.

According to the Boston Herald, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and some NFL teams have been criticized for lenient or delayed punishment of Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and other players involved in recent domestic violence cases. Less than three weeks into the season, five such cases have made headlines, involving Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald and Jonathan Dwyer.

The Boston Herald reports that Goodell said in a memo late Thursday that within the next 30 days, all NFL and team personnel will participate in education sessions on domestic violence and sexual assault. The memo said the league will gain the "information and tools to understand and recognize domestic violence and sexual assault."

The league will provide financial, operational and promotional support to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

"These commitments will enable both the hotline and NSVRC to help more people affected by domestic violence and sexual assault," Goodell said in the memo.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline received 84 percent more calls from Sept. 8-15, according to Goodell, and the organization said more than 50 percent of those calls went unanswered because of lack of staff.

"The hotline will add 25 full-time advocates over the next few weeks that will result in an additional 750 calls a day being answered," he said.

.@nflcommish is under fire for how the NFL handled recent abuse allegations. Now he's speaking out. Watch CNN @ 3pET. pic.twitter.com/9qGXw9lvqw

— CNN (@CNN) September 19, 2014