Goodell: I assumed there was another video but didn’t see it
Posted by Michael David Smith on September 9, 2014, 5:13 PM EDT
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...med-there-was-another-video-but-didnt-see-it/
AP
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has reiterated what the league has been saying repeatedly in the 36 hours since footage of
Ray Rice punching his wife first surfaced: The NFL didn’t see the video until the rest of the world did.
Goodell sat for an interview with CBS in which he said he hadn’t seen the video.
“We had not seen any videotape of what occurred in the elevator. We assumed that there was a video, we asked for video, we asked for anything that was pertinent, but we were never granted that opportunity,” Goodell said.
In a sign of just how big a story this has become, CBS broke into its regularly scheduled afternoon programming to show the brief clip from the interview in which Goodell made that statement. The network has promised that it will have more from Goodell on tonight’s news and tomorrow morning.
What CBS has not shown yet is any follow-up about
why Goodell hasn’t seen the video. Why didn’t the NFL tell Rice and his attorney to provide the league with a copy of the video, and make providing the league with the video a condition of his continued employment? Why didn’t the NFL do what TMZ did, and approach the casino where the domestic violence incident took place to request the security tape?
Until Goodell answers that, no one is going to be satisfied with the NFL’s public statements. And even after Goodell answers that, few will be satisfied with the NFL’s handling of this mess.
Goodell doesn’t believe his job is on the line
Posted by Mike Florio on September 9, 2014, 7:09 PM EDT
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/09/09/goodell-doesnt-believe-his-job-is-on-the-line/
AP
In the wake of a call from Senator Heidi Heitkamp that Commissioner Roger Goodell
should resign, Goodell addressed his job status during an interview with Norah O’Donnell of CBS.
While not part of the interview that was televised during the
CBS Evening News, O’Donnell explained to anchor Bob Schieffer that she asked Goodell whether his job is on the line.
“No,” Goodell told O’Donnell. “I’m used to the criticism. I’m used to that. Every day, I have to earn my stripes.”
Most calls for Goodell to resign have arisen from the suspicion that the NFL saw the video that was released by TMZ on Monday before suspending Rice only two games. Goodell insisted that the NFL did not have access to the video.
“I got into the office [on Monday] and our staff had come to me and said, ‘There’s new evidence. There’s a video that you need to see.’ And I watched it then,” Goodell said. “We had not seen any videotape of what occurred in the video. We assumed that there was a video. We asked for video. But we were not granted that opportunity.”
So how did TMZ but not the NFL get the video?
“I don’t know how TMZ or any other website gets their information,” Goodell said. “We are particularly reliant on law enforcement. That’s the most reliable. It’s the most credible. And we don’t seek to get that information from sources that are not credible.”
But there are other reliable, credible sources than law enforcement. Did the league ask Rice to produce the video via his lawyer? If not, why not? Did the NFL ask the casino at which the incident occurred for the video? If not, why not?
Those questions weren’t asked. Also unasked, and unanswered, were questions regarding the specific law-enforcement agencies to whom the requests were made, and what those agencies had to say.
So while Goodell has addressed conclusively and credibly the question of whether the league had the video before Monday, the league continues to avoid the question of why the video wasn’t obtained. Unless and until that question is fully and completely answered, the controversy will linger and possibly grow, and public confidence in the NFL will not be fully restored.
