If report on Rice video is accurate, Goodell must go

If the Associated Press story that surfaced Wednesday is verified, there is only one thing left for NFL owners to say to their handpicked commissioner: Roger, over and out.

There's no way Roger Goodell should be able to survive this because incompetent liars do not make good leaders, and the AP report depicts the NFL commissioner as both without saying it.

Goodell was adamant during an interview on CBS This Morning that no one in the NFL offices had seen the sickening video that surfaced Monday on TMZ Sports. It was only after he saw Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knock out his future wife, Janay, for "the first time" that Goodell changed a two-game suspension into an indefinite one. The Ravens, of course, also released Rice.

The AP story contradicts Goodell's claim, citing an unnamed law enforcement official as saying a league executive received the video that surfaced Monday more than five months ago, on April 9. The story said the official also played a 12-second voice mail for the AP during which a female voice confirms the arrival of the video and says, "You're right. It's terrible."

The commissioner has been all over the place on the Rice case since the start. He initially defended his two-game suspension of the running back in early August, saying: "We have a very firm policy that domestic violence is not acceptable in the NFL, and there are consequences for that. Obviously, when we are going through the process of evaluating an issue and whether there will be discipline, you look at all of the facts that are available to us."

Let's dissect those words, starting with the claim that the league has a very firm policy on domestic violence. At the time of Goodell's statement, domestic violence fell under the NFL's conduct policy, which allows the commissioner to enforce whatever penalty he thinks fits the offense. There is nothing firm about that sort of policy.

At the end of August, after intense backlash for his decision to suspend Rice for just two games, Goodell did indeed institute a firm policy.

"My disciplinary decision led the public to question our sincerity, our commitment and whether we understood the toll that domestic violence inflicts on so many families," Goodell wrote in a letter to NFL owners. "I take responsibility both for the decision and for ensuring that our actions in the future properly reflect our values. I didn't get it right. Simply put, we have to do better. And we will."

Goodell implemented a policy that any NFL employee - player or not - engaging in assault, battery, domestic violence, or sexual assault that involved physical force will be suspended without pay for six games for a first offense. The new rule states that second-time offenders will be banished from the league for at least a year and then they could petition to be reinstated, but there will be no presumption or assurance that the petition will be granted.

By suspending first-time offender Rice indefinitely, Goodell broke his own "firm" policy less than two weeks after implementing it.

Goodell's initial statement defending the two-game suspension of Rice also maintained that the league "looks at all the facts that are available to us."

Well, if the AP story is true, then what Goodell said that day is not. Again, the video released by TMZ Sports on Monday should not have been the deciding influence in how the NFL and the Ravens dealt with Rice because the facts of the case remained the same. Goodell and the Ravens knew that Rice knocked his future wife unconscious before they saw that video.

Goodell insinuated in an interview with USA Today that Rice did not give the commissioner full disclosure about what happened on the elevator.

"What we saw was new evidence [Monday] that was not consistent with what was described when we met with Ray and his representatives," Goodell said.

Again, what does the commissioner not get about knocked unconscious?

Interestingly, Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome was quoted in Wednesday's Baltimore Sun as saying that Rice gave an accurate description to him and Baltimore coach John Harbaugh about what happened in the elevator.

"I think from the beginning they dropped the ball," Eagles cornerback Cary Williams said Wednesday when asked about the Rice case.

And they keep dropping it over and over and over again.

"We have no knowledge of this," the NFL said in a statement. "We are not aware of anyone in our office who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday. We will look into it."

That should make us all feel better.

@brookob