Expert: Ray Rice Video Was Bound To Surface
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Millions have seen the graphic video that appears to show Ray Rice knocking his fiancee unconscious. Now many want to know why did the NFL and the Ravens wait so long to fire him?
Investigator Mike Hellgren has more on who knew what.
Ray Rice probably never thought this is how he'd end up on the cover of Sports Illustrated: a still frame from the moment before he walked into an Atlantic City casino with the mother of his child and punched her in the face.
At Rice's home in Owings Mills, he accepted flowers at his front door while, at the same time, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was giving CBS News an exclusive interview, where he said he had never seen the punch video before TMZ released it early Monday morning.
Click here to read NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's response.
"No one in the NFL to my knowledge and I asked that same question. To answer to that is no," Goodell said. "What we saw yesterday was extremely clear, it was extremely graphic and it was sickening."
TMZ claims the casino offered the NFL video and the league did not want it. The Associated Press viewed a longer clip of the recording from a law enforcement source with audio showing the couple cursing at each other.
Doug Ward is a law enforcement expert with Johns Hopkins University.
"But when you see it, there's something about seeing it occur that changes the game," he said.
The furor over Rice has reached a fever pitch with some fans burning his jersey and some lawmakers calling for a Congressional investigation.
"The NFL is failing to set a good example for the American public and the Ravens, in my view, performed just as badly," said a Congressman.
Commissioner Goodell left open the possibility that Rice could return to the NFL.
"I don't rule that out but he would have to make sure that we are fully confident that he is addressing the issue," he said. "He has paid the price for the actions that he's already taken."
Click here to read a letter from Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti.
Stay with WJZ for the latest developments on the fallout in the Ray Rice case.
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