The N.F.L. remained on the defensive Tuesday as questions mounted over its handling of the domestic abuse case involving one of its star running backs, Ray Rice.
Commissioner Roger Goodell went on national television to address what the N.F.L. knew about a graphic video that showed Rice punching and knocking out his then-fiancée in an elevator. The video was released Monday by TMZ, a celebrity gossip website, prompting the Baltimore Ravens to terminate Rice’s contract and the N.F.L. to suspend him indefinitely.
Goodell said he had not seen the video of Rice knocking out his fiancée.
“We assumed there was a video, we asked for a video, but we were never granted that opportunity,” Goodell told CBS News on Tuesday. “No one in the N.F.L. to my knowledge” had seen the video.
In a statement earlier Tuesday, the league said it had asked law enforcement officials for “any and all information about the incident, including any video that may exist” and “that video was not made available to us, and no one in our office saw it until yesterday.” But the league also declined to say if any of its investigators had seen the video, and why it had not requested the video from the hotel where the assault was recorded by security cameras.
On Tuesday, TMZ said an employee of the hotel, which recently closed, claimed that the N.F.L. saw the video from inside the elevator before it suspended Rice for two games in July, a decision that led to a backlash from women’s groups, advocates for victims of domestic abuse and some players.
Rice was in the midst of serving that suspension and would have been eligible to play in the Ravens’ third game of the season, on Sept. 21.
On Monday, the N.F.L. said that during its investigation, it had not seen the more graphic video. The league had said it initially suspended Rice for two games in part because prosecutors had dropped the felony assault charge against him in favor of court-supervised counseling.
Goodell has been accused of not understanding the severity of the domestic violence and not doing more to unearth evidence in the Rice case. Some commentators have called on Goodell to step down.
Legal experts said the N.F.L. probably had access to the Atlantic City police report that said that surveillance footage showed that “both parties were involved in a physical altercation.”
The police also noted that the fiancée, Janay Palmer, now Janay Rice, was struck by Rice with his hand, “rendering her unconscious” while she was in the elevator.
Goodell said the N.F.L. had seen the less graphic video published by TMZ soon after the assault in February, video that was taken from a camera in a hallway and showed Rice dragging his fiancée from the elevator.
According to advocates for victims of domestic violence, that video should have been enough to prompt Goodell to suspend Rice for more than two games.
“It didn’t leave a lot to the imagination,” said Kim Gandy, the president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
Gandy, who spoke with Goodell at length before he strengthened the league’s domestic violence policy last month, said she applauded the commissioner’s tougher stance and blamed prosecutors in New Jersey for reducing the charges against Rice.
“It’s a sad commentary on the criminal justice system that there wasn’t stronger action taken,” she said. “I guess celebrity has its privileges.”
The league said its investigators spoke to the New Jersey State Police and “reached out multiple times” to the Atlantic City Police Department and the Atlantic County prosecutor’s office. The league added that it did not interfere in the investigation, which led a grand jury to indict Rice on felony assault charges. Goodell said the league was “particularly reliant on law enforcement” in these cases because it was the most dependable source of information.
Rice’s original two-game suspension caused such a furor that in August, Goodell took the unusual step of publicly apologizing and strengthening the league’s rules. Players or league officials found to have committed domestic violence will now receive a six-game suspension.
Goodell did not, however, revisit Rice’s original suspension until this week.
Goodell has been seeking to explain his decisions and refocus the public’s attention on the current football season, which began last week.
Earlier Tuesday, Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, came to Goodell’s defense. That interview was also broadcast on CBS, which paid the N.F.L. an estimated $250 million to carry eight Thursday night football games this season.
“The way he has handled this situation himself, coming out with the mea culpa in his statement a couple of weeks ago, or 10 days ago, and setting a very clear policy of how we conduct ourselves in the N.F.L., I thought was excellent,” Kraft said on “CBS This Morning.” “Anyone who is second-guessing that doesn’t know him.”
Kraft added that he thought Rice would never play in the N.F.L. again. “I would be shocked if some team would pick him up,” he said.
The Ravens had not taken any public action against Rice until Monday. Coach John Harbaugh stood by Rice this summer, and on Monday, he told reporters that he would be willing to help Rice and his wife if needed.
But the team has continued to cut ties with him. The Ravens announced that they would offer an exchange for his jerseys at stadium stores. The Patriots did the same last year after tight end Aaron Hernandez was charged with murder.
In a letter to fans that hold personal seat licenses for home games, Stephen J. Bisciotti, the Ravens’ owner, said that “we did not do all we should have done and no amount of explanation can remedy that.”
He said that after the assault in February, Rice told the team that he and his fiancée “had consumed a great deal of alcohol, they had had an argument and that they struck each other.”
Bisciotti said the team began its own investigation and spoke with representatives of the casino, the police who arrested the couple, the prosecutor and a lawyer who represented both Rice and his wife. The team asked the casino to view video of the assault from inside the elevator, but the casino declined to share it. The local police and the prosecutor’s office also refused.
When the prosecutor, who had seen the video, reduced the charge against Rice, the team effectively ended its investigation.
Separately, Nike said Tuesday it had severed ties with Rice, and EA Sports said it had removed him from the Madden 15 video game.
Amid the fallout, Janay Rice said her life has turned into a nightmare after her husband was suspended and the Ravens severed their contract with him.
“I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend,” she wrote in a post on Instagram Tuesday, according to The Baltimore Sun. “But to have to accept the fact that it’s reality is a nightmare in itself.”