By
DeWyn
Since
the video of then-Baltimore Ravens player, Ray Rice, brutally beating his
fiancé to the point of unconsciousness was released to the public, the NFL has
been backpedaling.
All along, Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, has
been in denial that the organization knew anything about the beating until it
was made public. It was revealed late on Friday, though, that the team knew
about the incident right after it happened.
Just hours after running back Ray Rice knocked out his then-fiancée with a left hook at the Revel Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the Baltimore Ravens’ director of security, Darren Sanders, reached an Atlantic City police officer by phone. While watching surveillance video — shot from inside the elevator where Rice’s punch knocked his fiancée unconscious — the officer, who told Sanders he just happened to be a Ravens fan, described in detail to Sanders what he was seeing.
Sanders quickly relayed the damning video’s play-by-play to team executives in Baltimore, unknowingly starting a seven-month odyssey that has mushroomed into the biggest crisis confronting a commissioner in the NFL’s 95-year history. Source: ESPN
It
seems that since that night in February, the public has been fed a series of
lies from throughout the organization. The intention was to keep Rice on the
field, no matter what it took. The team tried to influence the judicial system
and commissioner Goodell. They also spoke with Rice’s attorney, who had the
elevator video in April.
Not
everyone agreed on leniency toward Rice, though. His coach, John Harbaugh,
reportedly wanted to cut Rice right then and there. He also wanted to cut two
other players who had been arrested.
However, the team denies that Harbaugh
wanted to cut the players, saying “John Harbaugh did not want to release Ray
Rice until he saw the second video on September 8 for the first time. The video
changed everything for all of us.”
None
of this was addressed in a press conference today with Goodell, where he
maintained ignorance and vowed to make “changes to our personal conduct
policy.”
Rice will appeal his
indefinite suspension.