The appeal of Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension will find out what the NFL knew and when the NFL knew it about what happened inside that Atlantic City elevator. To get there, the hearing officer will have to assess the accuracy and credibility of a variety of witnesses who said things and/or heard things said when Rice explained the incident.
Ravens G.M. Ozzie Newsome said last week that Rice didn’t lie to Newsome. Since Newsome was in the room when Rice met with Commissioner Roger Goodell in June, that sets up a potential dispute between Newsome’s recollection of Rice’s remarks and Goodell’s.
But Newsome said something else last week that will raise the stakes on the looming effort to figure out who’s telling the truth and who isn’t.
“We had a meeting but also Ray and Janay and Roger had a separate meeting and a story was told in that meeting,” Newsome said. “So what was said during the meeting between the three could have been a lot different than what was said when the eight of us were in a room together.”
Ultimately, the question of whether Rice lied could come down to the credibility of the testimony from Rice, his wife, and Goodell regarding the statements made during that meeting. Since the NFL makes no transcript of these meetings, there’s no way to know with certainty what was said.
Goodell’s decision to meet privately with Rice and his wife makes Goodell a central witness to the question of whether the NFL knew what was on the tape, and it makes it even more important that a truly independent party with no direct or indirect ties to Goodell be responsible for getting to the truth.