The plot thickens for the Baltimore Ravens and Ray Rice as an NFLPA lawyer testifies that Ravens president Dick Cass told Rice to downplay assault story.
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A summarized transcript came out on Wednesday containing the testimony of NFLPA lawyer Heather McPhee in the Ray Rice appeal hearing. The transcript contains an interesting, and rather disturbing, piece of information in the allegation that Ravens president Dick Cass advised Rice pretty specifically to soften the description of his assault on his then-fiancee Janay Palmer.
"“[Cass] said, ‘I completely agree with what Heather just said, Ray — be yourself,” McPhee testified. “I would suggest there are different ways to describe what happened honestly, and it would be truthful to say [you] ‘lay [your] hands on’” Janay Palmer. (via Pro Football Talk)"
McPhee then said that she suggested that Rice not use the language that Cass had suggested. She also said that Rice had used consistent language with her concerning the event. The point here is that this information could be big for the case, as the NFL used Rice understating the altercation to Goodell as the reason for upholding its indefinite suspension of the running back. A reason that former U.S. Judge Barbara Jones flatly rejected.
Cass hasn’t testified and the Ravens haven’t issued any kind of rebuttal to McPhee’s testimony, so if it’s accurate, it indicates that the team was trying to avoid Rice missing games more than Rice was trying to avoid missing games.
The idea is starting to take shape that certain members of the Ravens organization tried to work with Rice to cover up the severity of the situation, both to keep him from missing too many games and also to avoid the possibility that coach John Harbaugh would want to cut the running back. These new details make it look more and more likely that it wasn’t Rice trying to save his own butt, but some people in the organization trying to save theirs.
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