Did NFL sit on Ray Rice video for months?
The Associated Press says an anonymous law enforcement official has claimed he sent a DVD copy of the now-infamous video of Ray Rice appearing to punch and knock out his fiance to NFL headquarters back in April.
Even though he was not authorized to share the video, the official said he did so in hope that the league would see it before it punished Rice, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi.
It is the latest allegation posing a direct challenge to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's credibility.
Reporter Rob Maaddi said he listened to a voicemail, left on April 9, confirming the DVD arrived at NFL headquarters in New York.
It came from a number within the league office. The voicemail is from an unidentified woman saying that she received the video, thanking the law enforcement official for sending it, and telling him, "he's right, it's terrible."
But the AP's source could not say if any NFL employees actually watched the video because the law enforcement official had no other contact with the league after the DVD arrived.
"I have complete confidence in my source. He is very credible," Maadii said, "and this is a story that we were working on for days, and long hours, and it is not something that we would go with unless we were rock solid sure that this is a credible source."
An NFL spokesman questioned the accuracy of the AP report, saying: "We are not aware of anyone in our office who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday. We will look into it."
Anger toward the NFL grew more intense on Wednesday, and members of congress are now openly questioning Goodell's leadership.
"If there is information that shows that he did know, or he had access to this information, I do think it puts at risk the current job that he has," said Nevada senator Dean Heller.
The National Organization for Women also called on Goodell to step down.
"We need someone to go in there, do a top-to-bottom review, make recommendations that will really have teeth and that will really institute the kind of changes that we need so that the NFL can be about football again and not about trashing women," said Terry O'Neill, NOW president.
The NFL says the pending investigation led by former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III would have the full cooperation of league personnel and be granted access to all records.
It will be overseen by two NFL owners: John Mara of the New York Giants and Art Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers.