The results of the independent investigation into how the NFL handled the Ray Rice situation, which the league ordered itself, were released on Thursday. Former FBI director Robert Mueller, who led the investigation, determined that the NFL did not see the complete video of Ray Rice punching his now-wife Janay in an Atlantic City elevator.
Mueller specifically looked at the claims a source for the Associated Press made in September. The law enforcement official claimed that he did send the NFL the full tape, which was leaked on TMZ earlier in September, on April 9 and had a voice mail message from a woman at the NFL offices to prove it.
However, the report disputes this story. “The investigation found no evidence that the NFL received the in-elevator video before its public release on September 8, 2014,” Mueller said in a statement.
Still, the report, which was overseen by New York Giants owner John Mara and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney, did not completely clear the NFL of mishandling the Rice scandal. Mueller found that the NFL should have further investigated the incident, which would have led to the NFL seeing the full video before it was made public.
ESPN notes that the full report also shows that the NFL did not ask Rice and his attorney if they could provide the full video. The league also didn’t ask Rice’s former team, the Baltimore Ravens, if they had any other information.
Rice was initially only suspended for two games, but when the full video surfaced, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended him indefinitely. Rice appealed that decision and won. While he was reinstated to the league immediately, no team signed him before the end of the 2014 regular season.
image courtesy of Kristin Callahan/ACE/INFphoto.com
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