Just when people thought the Ray Rice incident couldn’t possibly get any worse, things have once again turned dire, but this time the focus is on the Baltimore Ravens organization.
An ESPN investigation has uncovered that the Ravens have had knowledge of exactly what happened inside the elevator since the night of the incident itself in February. Supposedly the Ravens director of security was on the phone with an Atlantic City police officer mere hours after the incident and relayed the information to Ravens officials.
Eventually video was released of Rice dragging his then-fiancee’s body out of the elevator. According to ESPN, head coach John Harbaugh immediately called for Rice’s release but he was rebuffed by Ravens management:
The Super Bowl-winning coach urged his bosses to release Rice immediately, especially if the team had evidence Rice had thrown a punch. That opinion was shared by George Kokinis, the Baltimore director of player personnel, according to a fifth source outside the organization but familiar with the team’s thinking. But Harbaugh’s recommendation to cut the six-year veteran running back was quickly rejected by Ravens management: owner Bisciotti, team president Cass and GM Newsome.
The report also says that the Ravens management lobbied to Commissioner Roger Goodell to go light on Rice and give him no more than a two game suspension.
With Commissioner Goodell addressing the media earlier as well, it will be interesting to see how the NFL handles this most recent report. Goodell admitted that the NFL did not handle these situations well and this evidence does not do him any favors in that regard.
Many have called for the resignation of Goodell, and while he said he hasn’t thought about it, this latest report could cause more outrage towards both Goodell, and the Ravens organization. Needless to say, this issue doesn’t appear to be going away.
