Roger Goodell in hot seat amid reports NFL was sent Ray Rice video

An act of domestic violence has already cost a professional football running back his job. Bumbling an investigation of the incident may cost the NFL’s commissioner his.

Roger Goodell, who heads the nation’s most successful sports league, has been adamant that no one at the NFL had seen video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice striking his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City elevator in February until surveillance footage was publicly released this week.

Media reports are now challenging that claim. An unnamed law enforcement official said he sent a video of the attack to an NFL executive five months ago, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. The official allowed the AP to hear a 12-second voice mail from an NFL office number, with a woman’s voice confirming receipt of the video and saying, “You’re right. It’s terrible.”

The NFL immediately responded by repeating what it has been saying all along: “We are not aware of anyone in our office who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said. “We will look into it.”

Another report, by ABC News, said the Ravens knew there was a copy of the video in the hands of Rice’s attorney but never asked to see it.

Late Wednesday, the NFL announced Robert Mueller, the former FBI director under presidents Obama and George W. Bush, will conduct an investigation into the pursuit and handling of evidence in the Rice case. The investigation will be overseen by New York Giants co-owner John Mara and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney. The final report will be made public.

Also on Wednesday, the National Organization for Women called for Goodell’s resignation and 12 members of the House Judiciary Committee signed a letter to him questioning his handling of the incident.

NFL players took to social media with their reaction, and within no time the hashtag #FireGoodell was trending on Twitter. Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin threw Goodell’s words back at him with a post that read, “Sean Payton was suspended for one year. ‘Ignorance is not an excuse…’” — Goodell’s words when he handed out punishment against the New Orleans Saints coach in 2012 for his role in setting bounties on opposing players.

Recently retired linebacker James Harrison, who was among the most heavily fined players in Goodell’s tenure, chided in a message to the commissioner, “ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun huh?” And retired running back Brian Westbrook wrote, “Being a leader is not a part time job. If Goodell holds the players to a high standard, he should be held to that same high standard!”

The woman Rice struck, Janay Palmer, is now his wife. Video of Rice dragging Palmer out of the elevator first surfaced in July, but it wasn’t until this week that TMZ posted footage of the blow to the side of her face that knocked her into a railing and left her limp on the floor.

Rice was charged with third-degree assault, a felony; Palmer with simple assault, a misdemeanor. Rice agreed to enter a diversionary program, allowing him to avoid trial.

The NFL suspended Rice two games after the first video’s release. When the additional footage went public, the Ravens immediately terminated his contract and the league suspended him indefinitely, meaning no team could pick him up.

In a letter to NFL team presidents Wednesday, Goodell defended his actions, saying, “When the new video evidence became available, we acted promptly …”

Goodell was widely criticized for initially suspending Rice for only two games. But the commissioner later received praise for admitting he had been too lenient and he ramped up future penalties for players charged with domestic violence.

When the new video of Rice surfaced, and the public saw the brutality of the incident, criticism grew to a roar. The questions: When did the NFL first see the video? And if the league actually didn’t see it until Monday, why not?

The law enforcement source who spoke to the AP said he had no further communication with any NFL employee and could not confirm if anyone had watched the video. The person said he was not authorized to release the video, but shared it unsolicited so the NFL would have the information when deciding on Rice’s punishment.

In his letter Wednesday to the 32 teams, Goodell said that while deciding how to penalize Rice, the league asked New Jersey state and local authorities to provide all relevant information, including video, but did not ask the same of the now-closed Revel Hotel and Casino, which had the footage from the elevator.

“We did not ask the Atlantic City casino directly for the video,” Goodell wrote. “Again, our understanding of New Jersey law is that the casino is prohibited from turning over material to a third party during a law enforcement proceeding, and that doing so would have subjected individuals to prosecution for interference with a criminal investigation.”

Paul Loriquet, the director of communications for the New Jersey attorney general, said to TMZ late Wednesday “it’s not illegal” for the casino to provide the material to a private entity in an ongoing investigation.

Suspicion lingers about what the NFL knew, and when.

“Given the important role the NFL and the other major professional sports leagues can play in shaping public perceptions concerning domestic violence, it would appear to be in the public interest to have the highest level of transparency associated with reviews of potential misconduct,” said the letter from the House Judiciary Committee, which was signed by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the committee’s ranking member, and 11 other Democrats.

NOW said the league had “a violence-against-women problem” and the commissioner stepping down is “the only way to restore honor and integrity to the country’s most lucrative and popular pastime.”

Although the video released by TMZ is grainy and choppy, making it difficult to determine all of the interaction between Rice and Palmer before the punch, unidentified security staffers of the Revel hotel gave more specific information to ESPN’s “Outside the Lines.”

Two of the men were on duty the night of the assault, while a third had access to the video. The men said Rice spat in Palmer’s face twice, once outside the elevator and once inside. She rushed at him, and he punched her, knocking her into a railing and unconscious. When the doors opened, the running back dragged her out of the elevator.

“The first thing [Rice] said is, ‘She’s intoxicated. She drank too much. I’m just trying to get her to the room,’” a hotel staffer told the program.

When Palmer regained consciousness, she said, “ ‘How could you do this to me? I’m the mother of your kid,’” according to the staffer.

The staffer said that while Palmer was still groggy, Rice called someone on his cellphone and said, “I’m getting arrested tonight.”