The video of Baltimore Ravens running back hitting his then-fiancee in an elevator was released today and the public was outraged. That led to a swift response with the Ravens releasing Ray Rice and the NFL then suspending him indefinitely roughly 20 minutes later.
Part of the outrage comes from the thought that the NFL and Ravens could have seen the video and justified a two-game suspension. The NFL called the tape, released by TMZ, “new evidence” and deny having previously seen video of the incident.
In a report earlier in the summer, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King reported that the NFL and the Ravens had seen the video.
"There is one other thing I did not write or refer to, and that is the other videotape the NFL and some Ravens officials have seen, from the security camera inside the elevator at the time of the physical altercation between Rice and his fiancée."
That has called into question King’s reporting, and either he was misled by his source or the league is lying. Either way, King released a statement trying to explain the situation and his reporting.
"Earlier this summer a source I trusted told me he assumed the NFL had seen the damaging video that was released by TMZ on Monday morning of Rice slugging his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, in an Atlantic City elevator. The source said league officials had to have seen it. This source has been impeccable, and I believed the information. So I wrote that the league had seen the tape. I should have called the NFL for a comment, a lapse in reporting on my part. The league says it has not seen the tape, and I cannot refute that with certainty. No one from the league has ever knocked down my report to me, and so I was surprised to see the claim today that league officials have not seen the tape.I hope when this story is fully vetted, we all get the truth and nothing but the truth."