The NFL announced on Monday that no league officials had seen the video of Ray Rice knocking out his now-wife Janay Palmer prior to TMZ releasing it to the public.
“We requested from law enforcement any and all information about the incident, including video from inside the elevator,” the league said in a statement, via NFL.com’s Jeff Darlington. “That video was not made available to us and no one in our office has seen it until today.”
The Ravens, who have basically supported Rice throughout the entire process, also said they did not see the video of him punching Palmer but that he described his actions in detail and did not “sugarcoat” anything.
[WATCH: Ray Rice knocks out his wife in an elevator]
This obviously raises a ton of new questions. For starters, can Rice’s punishment be amended now that the NFL and the Ravens have supposedly been introduced to “new” evidence? We already know that Roger Goodell would love to be able to take a mulligan and punish Rice beyond the two-game suspension he handed down. Does this give him an avenue to do that?
If the new video gives the NFL an opportunity to save face, expect the league to jump all over it. However, you have to wonder how much of an effort the league made to obtain the video. You mean to tell me TMZ could get the footage but the NFL couldn’t? We knew police had the video back in February. It’s hard to believe they kept it from the NFL. What purpose would that serve?
In order for the NFL to be able to punish Rice further, they will likely have to prove that he omitted details or gave an inaccurate account of what happened that night. If he said he punched Palmer in the face and knocked her out, how can the league change its mind now that what he described is out there for the world to see?
Again, Goodell is going to try his best to use the new video to correct his mistake. But don’t let the PR spin fool you. How did the league think Palmer ended up on the ground in the first place? They knew exactly what happened.
