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In a long investigative article, reporters Don Van Natta Jr. and Kevin Van Valkenburg trace the events from when Ravens running back Ray Rice knocked his then-girlfriend unconscious in an Atlantic City elevator to what happened in the months that followed, citing more than 20 sources to illustrate "a pattern of misinformation and misdirection" from the league and the Ravens organization.
Here's a portion:
Just hours after running back Ray Rice knocked out his then-fiancée with a left hook at the Revel Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the Baltimore Ravens' director of security, Darren Sanders, reached an Atlantic City police officer by phone. While watching surveillance video -- shot from inside the elevator where Rice's punch knocked his fiancée unconscious -- the officer, who told Sanders he just happened to be a Ravens fan, described in detail to Sanders what he was seeing.
Sanders quickly relayed the damning video's play-by-play to team executives in Baltimore, unknowingly starting a seven-month odyssey that has mushroomed into the biggest crisis confronting a commissioner in the NFL's 95-year history.
The Ravens organization previously released a statement saying it had only seen a video of the couple leaving the elevator, but was unable to obtain one from inside. It claimed it first viewed the "horrifying" video on Sept. 8, like much of the public. But this new account from OTL reveals the team certainly knew what was on it.
REPORT: Rice attorney Michael J. Diamondstein, had a copy of the inside-elevator video and told Cass: "It's f---ing horrible."
- Brent Harris (@BrentCSN) September 19, 2014
Soon after the incident in February, Goodell suspended Rice for only two games - at the urging of multiple Ravens executives as "a favor to his good friend [Ravens owner Steve] Bisciotti." In a press conference Friday, Goodell admitted that was a mistake.
"I got it wrong on a number of levels," he said, "But now I will get it right and do whatever is necessary to accomplish that."