Sports

Roger Goodell: We asked for Ray Rice video on multiple occasions

Christine Brennan
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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he never saw the elevator video of Ray Rice striking his then-fiancee until Monday morning, but when he did, he found it "sickening," he told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone interview Tuesday evening.

He also said that Rice and his representatives told him a different story about what happened in the Atlantic City elevator than what he saw on the video. While he would not reveal those details, he called them "ambiguous."

Read MoreNFLsuspends Ray Rice indefinitely

"There was no ambiguity when you saw that tape (Monday)," he said. "It was sickening. It was appalling. It was clear that it was not consistent with what they presented to us in the hearing and we needed to take the right step which is to indefinitely suspend him."

Goodell said he and his staff saw the first video in February, the one in which Rice is seen dragging Janay Palmer's listless body out of the elevator. They "suspected" there was another, and tried to obtain it.

"We asked for it on multiple occasions," Goodell said. "We asked law enforcement and they were not willing to provide it. I think they were under some legal requirements not to provide it, as I understand it."

Roger Goodell
Michael Zagaris | San Francisco 49ers | Getty Images

A spokesman for the New Jersey state attorney general addressed on Tuesday the issue of why the video was not released to the NFL.

"It's grand jury material. It would have been improper — in fact, illegal — for the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office to provide it to an outside/private/non law-enforcement entity," Paul Loriquet said, according to ABC News.

Asked if he knew such a tape existed, Goodell said, "We suspected (it existed), that's why we asked for it. So we said: 'Is there any other information? Is there a video in the elevator? We would like to view it, we want to have all the information.'"

In late July, Goodell levied his first punishment against Rice, a two-game suspension. Several weeks later, amid a torrent of criticism, he announced a new domestic violence policy for the league, one in which a first offense would receive a six-game suspension, and a second offense, an indefinite suspension of at least a year.

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Then came the release of the second video, obtained by TMZ. When he viewed it, Goodell described his reaction this way: "It's so graphic, it's so clear, and that is very difficult for anybody to accept. It's very difficult. It's sickening. I think we all had that reaction."

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Asked several times why any of us, including him, should have been surprised by the second video after seeing the first, Goodell said he had been relying on information obtained from a meeting with Rice, his representatives and an attorney from the players union. What he said he was told clearly was not what transpired on the video.

"What they indicated happened was that it was ambiguous and there was another side to it. I don't think there is when I see the video. It was an ambiguous description of what happened in the elevator and I don't think that's ambiguous at all."

The players union and Rice's attorney, Michael Diamondstein, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Goodell said even though he had seen the first video, his interview with Rice and his representatives guided his decision-making.

"You see the first video, the February video (of Rice dragging Janay Palmer out of the elevator), that's difficult and you can obviously see that something has gone very wrong, and that's why we took the steps that we took to discipline him, albeit we obviously said that we didn't get that (punishment) right and said our policies need to be updated from an educational, training and discipline standpoint and that we were going to be doing that and that we were serving notice on that."

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Roger Goodell knew Rice hit fiancé: Steinberg

Then came the second video. Goodell said his indefinite suspension of Rice, who also was cut by the Baltimore Ravens on Monday, is consistent with his new domestic violence policy.

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"Our policy stands. What we saw was new evidence yesterday that was not consistent with what was described when we met with Ray and his representatives. We felt we needed to take this step. This was an important step to take. We're going to still obviously apply our policy to any future cases that come before me and we will do the things we said in there with respect to improving our policies and education and training and other initiatives that we talked about."

Asked if he was concerned about his job in the wake of criticism over his handling of the Rice issue, Goodell said, "No. No. I'm used to the criticism. We've listened. We've learned and we've tried to adjust our policies when necessary, and we did that in this case."

By Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports