ESPN's Adam Schefter Rips The NFL In Passionate SportsCenter Segment About Ray Rice
It's about as passionate as you'll ever see the normally stoic Schefter.
In the wake of TMZ releasing a disturbing new video of Rice knocking out his fiancee, Schefter called the NFL only suspending him for two games "arguably the biggest black eye the league has ever had."
He said that the NFL should revisit the suspension if they'd never seen the video until today, adding, "If anybody in this company or any company out there ever did what he did, do you think they'd be working for that company much longer? It's hard to imagine that."
Here's a partial transcript from the nearly five-minute segment with Hannah Storm:
"It comes down to this: If the NFL had seen that video and suspended Ray Rice for two games, then it's an embarrassment of the highest proportion. And if it didn't seen the video before, then it's time to go back and revisit it.
"There's not a lot that the league can say that at this point will undo the wrong that has been done here. The league got this wrong. Roger Goodell admitted that he got this wrong. This is arguably the biggest black eye the league has ever had. ... Roger Goodell will look back on his time as commissioner of the NFL and say this is easily this is the biggest regret.
"The Ravens, also, accompanied Ray Rice to New York to the league meeting, opened their training facility for him to conduct a press conference, penned tributes to him on their website, supported him through this process. It is difficult to watch this video and bring those ideas together that anybody who could see anybody act like that could support any person. If anybody in this company or any company out there ever did what he did, do you think they'd be working for that company much longer? It's hard to imagine that."
Schefter has taken criticism for his initial coverage of the incident, where he said on SportsCenter, "Was the commissioner lenient enough?"
But he didn't hold back on Monday. Whether he was enraged because of a source lied to him about what was on the video, or he was just shook up by the graphic nature of the video, it resulted in a strong segment from a guy who's not known for stating his opinions: