Roger Goodell spoke on CBS This Morning about Ray Rice, the Janay Palmer punch assault and the video obtained by TMZ and Goodell gave expected answers to tough questions from Norah O'Donnell, showing how willfully ignorant the NFL and the league was at nearly every turn of this investigation and he spoke about what ultimately led to Rice getting released and suspended from the league.
According to Pro Football Talk, Goodell stated that the NFL did not know what occurred in the elevator, despite reports coming out about it multiple times and the league also said it was "ambiguous to them" what occurred. He was asked a tough question about what was ambiguous about a woman being dragged unconscious out of an elevator, but he did not give a good answer for that.
Goodell seemingly is blaming Palmer, or at least using the argument that "We did not know what led up to that" or, in other speak: we did not know if she had done something to deserve to get knocked out, because we did not see what led up to it. Now, Rice may have lied to the NFL and Palmer may have done so as well, but that is on Goodell, as he forced Palmer to speak about the incident, in FRONT of her abuser. She defended him there, she's defending him now and she also was forced to apologize in front of the Ravens to her abuser at a press conference held by the Ravens.
Remember, the NFL was fine to allow Ray Rice serve his suspension and then allow him to apply on Friday after serving those two games, but then the video came out. Goodell and the NFL clearly did not want to know what occurred in that elevator and from the beginning, the police, the Atlantic City DA, the league, the Baltimore Ravens, all fell in line and backed up the same argument.
The Ravens, NFL, Ray Rice and Palmer herself perpetuated the lie that something else occurred in that elevator. Palmer was forced to apologize for her "role in that night", but the video showed her one and only role that night was as a victim.
Goodell looks phony, ignorant and willfully negligent in finding out what happened in that elevator. Reporters and people around the NFL all reported on what occurred inside the elevator earlier in the year and again over the summer, but the NFL said and did nothing. The NFL has billions of dollars and can track down Spygate tapes, bounty recordings, the strain of weed Josh Gordon was smoking, but not a video...in a casino...in an elevator...that TMZ got. Okay.
Check here for the interview.
"There was nothing ambiguous about that," Goodell said. "That was the result that we saw. We did not know what led up to that. We did not know the details of that. We asked for that on several occasions. It was unacceptable in and of itself what we saw on the first tape. And that's why we took action, albeit insufficient action. And we acknowledge that, we took responsibility for that - I did personally - and I take responsibility for that now. But what we saw [Monday] was extremely clear and graphic and was absolutely necessary for us to take the action we did."
