NFL Comissioner Roger Goodell told CBS that the initial Ray Rice punishment was too light because Rice was "ambiguous about what actually happened" in their first meeting.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke with CBS This Morning and continues to maintain that neither he nor anyone in the NFL had seen the video of Ray and Janay Rice in the elevator before TMZ leaked the video publicly on Monday.
"No," Roger Goodell told Norah O'Donnell when asked if anyone had seen the video of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice beating his now-wife Janay Rice unconscious in an elevator.
"No one in the NFL -- to my knowledge -- and I had been asked that same question and the answer to that is no," Goodell said when asked again. "We were not granted that. We were told that was not something we would have access to. On multiple occasions we asked for it. And on multiple occasions we were told no. I understand that there may be legal restrictions on them sharing that with us. And we've heard that from attorney generals and former attorney generals."
Goodell states that it's a "fact" that no one in the NFL had seen the video, despite TMZ's and other reports stating otherwise. The NFL maintains that they were not able to get the video tape through legal channels and maintains that the NFL only gets their information through credible channels.
"We are particularly reliant on law enforcement. That's the most reliable," Goodell told CBS. "It's the most credible. And we don't seek to get that information from sources that are not credible."
Goodell admits that he would have liked to see the videotape prior to laying down the suspension on Ray Rice, stating that the NFL dropped the ball with the initial suspension. Goodell also states that when the NFL met with Rice and his representatives, Rice "was ambiguous about what actually happened".
"There was nothing ambiguous about that," Goodell told O'Donnell, when asked what as ambiguous about Janay Rice being dragged unconscious from an elevator by her feet. "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."
Throughout the interview process, Goodell routinely admitted that the NFL's action initially was insufficient and seems to imply that had he seen the video tape from inside the elevator (which he continues to maintain they did not), the initial punishment for Rice would have been more severe than the two-game suspension that he received.
Goodell describes the video TMZ leaked on Monday "sickening" and that it made it extremely clear what happened.