After TMZ released footage showing Ray Rice hitting his wife Janay Palmer and knocking her unconscious back in February, TMZ founder Harvey Levin said in an interview that there is evidence Roger Goodell and the NFL turned a blind eye to the video (see it here). On Tuesday morning, TMZ reported that the NFL never contacted the casino where the incident took place to ask for footage.
According to the new report, multiple sources connected with the Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City claim no one from the NFL ever asked to see the tape. If they had, the hotel would have gladly provided it. The casino was reportedly very cooperative and made a copy of the video for police and another for Rice’s lawyer.
The NFL says it requested “any and all information” from law enforcement regarding the incident and that the tape was never given to them because it was a pending case. However, NFL officials clearly didn’t conduct a thorough investigation if they didn’t even ask the hotel to see surveillance footage.
As LB already mentioned, it would be a joke to think the NFL didn’t have the means to obtain the video. Multiple reporters stated previously that the NFL had access to the video and/or were told in detail exactly what was on it. Either the NFL saw the video and hoped no one else ever would, which would give Rice ground for legal action, or they made hardly any effort to obtain it because they didn’t want to know.
The NFL released another statement on Tuesday reiterating that the video was not made available to the league by the police.
“Security for Atlantic City casinos is handled by the New Jersey State Police,” the statement read. “Any videos related to an ongoing criminal investigation are held in the custody of the state police. As we said yesterday: We requested from law enforcement any and all information about the incident, including the video from inside the elevator. That video was not made available to us.”
New Jersey State Police responded by saying they never had the footage and that Atlantic City Police handles incidents that take place off the casino floor. In other words, we’re all pointing fingers.
