Law enforcement first investigated Jeffrey Epstein in 2005, after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for a massage. By 2006, as the accusations widened, the FBI got involved.

In 2010, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison for "solicitation of prostitution with a minor." Over the next few years, he settled lawsuits with numerous victims alleging similar behavior. These received extensive media coverage.

None of this stopped New York Giants co-owner and Hollywood film producer Steve Tisch, in 2013, from regularly exchanging emails with Epstein in which the sex offender appears to serve as Tisch's skin-crawling personal "dating" service.

Epstein, according to documents that became public Friday in a Department of Justice evidence dump, continually offered up women -- Russians, Ukrainians, Tahitians -- whom Tisch would refer to as "my present" or "my surprise." Other times he inquired if they were "pro or civilian."

The emails detail a relationship so close that Tisch invited Epstein to Giants games, including in his personal suite to see a contest against the Philadelphia Eagles. There is no evidence Epstein ever attended any games.

Tisch isn't accused of violating any law in his conduct, but that doesn't mean NFL commissioner Roger Goodell shouldn't ask lots of questions about all this, if not launch an investigation. He should treat a long-standing owner -- Tisch's father originally bought half the Giants in 1991 -- the way he would a random player.

"Everyone who is part of the league must refrain from 'conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in' the NFL," the league's personal conduct policy reads. "It is not enough simply to avoid being found guilty of a crime in a court of law. We are all held to a higher standard and must conduct ourselves in a way that is responsible, promotes the values of the NFL, and is lawful."

The policy later notes that, "Ownership and club or league management have traditionally been held to a higher standard and will be subject to more significant discipline when violations of the Personal Conduct Policy occur."

It's part of how the NFL has, in the past, investigated owners for their personal conduct, including Jerry Richardson of the Carolina Panthers and Dan Snyder of the Washington Commanders. The NFL has yet to say anything about Tisch. A league spokesman did not immediately respond to ESPN on Sunday.

The entire situation was disturbing even before the 76-year-old Tisch released an out-of-touch and dismissive public statement Friday evening.

"We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments," Tisch's statement reads. "I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with."

Yeah, Steve, that ain't going to cut it.

Epstein was, indeed, a terrible person (to understate it), but he was publicly known to be a terrible person years before you decided to become, as Epstein put it one time, "a new but obviously shared interest friend."

Here's guessing that "shared interest" wasn't the NFC East title chase.

Tisch's statement serves only to raise additional questions.

If this is how Tisch communicates with people with whom he has a "brief" association, then exactly what does he discuss with his old friends?

Of course, why in the world would Tisch, a man of great wealth and influence, be emailing a convicted sex offender in the first place, let alone about attractive young women who Tisch occasionally suspected might be prostitutes?

Did Tisch, 63 years old at the time, also wonder about their age?

Tisch asserts all of the women were "adults." Perhaps that is true, but although it would be an important legal distinction, it matters little morally.

Epstein preyed on young women, including some from impoverished parts of Eastern Europe, so that he could serve them up like menu items to wealthy old men. That they might have reached the age of 18 doesn't negate much of the horror. Adults can be sexually trafficked as well.

If the standard for appropriate behavior for an NFL owner is simply that they didn't have relations with a minor or didn't actually travel to "Epstein Island," then let Goodell come out and say as much.

That would be one pathetically low bar to clear.

Steve Tisch was born into privilege, educated at elite institutions and blessed with an illustrious business career.

Tisch should be smart enough to comprehend that one of the reasons Epstein was able to control so many girls and women is that he was surrounded by power, money and prestige. Every rich and famous celebrity, politician, sports figure and businessman whom Epstein could point to as a friend provided a measure of credibility and safety that aided in his ability to lure additional victims.

Even the most innocent of Epstein's confidants owe the world some introspection and atonement.

Tisch offered none.

"If it takes a village to raise a child," goes a line in the movie "Spotlight," about child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, "it takes a village to abuse one."

Maybe Hollywood Steve has seen that film.

Tisch's statement tried to make clear that he and Epstein, when not discussing whether a woman from Tahiti was a "working girl" or if Epstein could arrange for "my surprise to take me to lunch tomorrow," focused on "movies, philanthropy, and investments."

How heartwarming. Like any of that matters.

Epstein died in 2019. Tisch is not under any known criminal investigation, and the emails themselves don't indicate he broke any law.

That doesn't mean the NFL shouldn't demand a full accounting of what these emails represent, what his relationship with Epstein centered on, or if Tisch understands the ramifications for untold victims ... or "presents," as he called them.