ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – As questions arose about how the NFL investigated domestic violence allegations against Ray Rice, Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday the league asked for, but was not given, video showing the ex-Ravens running back punching his then-fiancee on an elevator.
Goodell told CBS that “no one in the NFL, to my knowledge” had seen a new video of what happened on the elevator until it was posted online.
“We assumed that there was a video. We asked for video. But we were never granted that opportunity,” Goodell said.
Two videos, one released by TMZ Sports and another shown later to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official, show Rice punching Janay Palmer – who is now his wife – at an Atlantic City casino in February. They are graphic, and show more detail than an initial video released by TMZ in July that showed him dragging her from an elevator.
After the latest TMZ video made its way around the Internet, the Ravens cut Rice and the league barred him indefinitely. But the video renewed criticism about the NFL’s decision to initially suspend Rice for just two games, and raised questions about how strenuously the case was investigated.