[6] His career first started by covering city hall, law enforcement, and court beats for The St. Petersburg Times.
Goffard's two-part series jump-started the Los Angeles Times’ first ebook A Nightmare Made Real.
[10] Goffard led the Pulitzer Prize-winning team of reporters who wrote "How Bell Hit Bottom" in 2010.
[12] In 2010, he was part of the investigative reporting team covering the city officials corruption of public funds in Bell, California.
Goffard again became a Pulitzer Prize finalist for feature writing in 2014 for his story "The Manhunt For Christopher Dorner".