Nearly everyone has weighed in on how Roger Goodell handled the Ray Rice case, and now, after months of silence, Goodell himself has spoken about it. Admittedly, Goodell only spoke about the case because he was forced to at Rice's hearing, but now those transcripts have been made available.
According to media reports, Goodell admitted that he did not do a great job in handling the case from start to finish, including revealing that he did not thoroughly read the NFL security reports about the attack in the hotel elevator. Goodell acknowledged that multiple officials gave him detailed reports about the attacks but that he "didn't read it from start to finish." At one point he plainly stated, "I didn't look at them closely."
Goodell was also elusive when asked why the NFL never made a formal request to the police for the elevator footage from the hotel, saying that he was not sure what the word "formal" meant because he is "not an attorney." He went on to say that he did not "know the specifics" of whether or not his people tried to get the video.
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Jim Buckley, the NFL's lead investigator in the case, shocked many people when he admitted "I never contacted anyone about the tape."
The transcript also shows that when the NFL questioned Rice in June, Goodell did not ask a single question, instead letting his subordinates handle everything.
The blowback following the Rice case has been steadily negative for Goodell and the league, and these revelations can only make the situation worse. It seems likely that more calls for the commissioner's resignation will crop up, as the transcripts seem to portray the league as doing less than their due diligence when investigating Rice's attack on his then-fiancee.
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