It is now being reported that the NFL was shown the Ray Rice video that it claims it never saw until this week back in April.
A law enforcement official says he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee to an NFL executive five months ago, while league executives have insisted they didn’t see the violent images until this week.
The person played The Associated Press a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number on April 9 confirming the video arrived. A female voice expresses thanks and says: “You’re right. It’s terrible.”
The officer sent the video to the NFL unsolicited because they “wanted the NFL to have it before deciding on Rice’s punishment.”
The timing of this report is horrible for Goodell, who sent out a memo to teams on Wednesday stating that the NFL had not received any copy of the elevator tape before TMZ leaked it this week.
As you know, there has been a good deal of speculation about the investigatory process that preceded the decision to suspend Ray Rice for his involvement in an incident of domestic violence last February. I want to use this opportunity to address this matter and provide a full understanding of the process that was followed.
First, we did not see video of what took place inside the elevator until it was publicly released on Monday.
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In addition, in the context of an ongoing criminal investigation, information obtained outside of law enforcement that has not been tested by prosecutors or by the court system is not necessarily a reliable basis for imposing league discipline.
At this point, Goodell is going to have to double-down on the incompetence defense if he, in fact, didn’t know that his own league office had received the tape months before it was made public. Things are not looking good for Roger Goodell.
