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Despite the NFL saying all week it had not seen the full video of Ray Rice punching and knocking out his then-fiancee last February, a source told the Associated Press that law enforcement had in fact sent the tape to someone at the league office in April.
The AP broke the news with this tweet:
In the AP story, it says a source played a voicemail from April 9 that came from a phone number at the NFL offices, in which a female voice says the tape was received, expresses thanks and says: "You're right. It's terrible."
The source could not tell AP for certain if anyone at the NFL offices had watched the video, and he had no further contact with any other NFL employees. The AP report said the source was unauthorized to release the video but "shared it unsolicited, because they wanted the NFL to have it before deciding on Rice's punishment."
This will lead to many more questions, and these are the most pressing ones: Who exactly at the NFL got the video, did they show it to commissioner Roger Goodell, and if they didn't, why not?
In addition, ABC News reported that the Baltimore Ravens knew the full surveillance video existed and that Rice's lawyers had a copy, but never asked to see it.
The league has been adamant that it hadn't seen the full tape. When it was released by TMZ on Monday, the league specifically said to TMZ through a spokesman: "We requested from law enforcement any and all information about the incident, including the video from inside the elevator. That video was not made available to us and no one in our office has seen it until today."
That's very specific, as completely opposite of the AP report.
Goodell told CBS Evening News, "We had not seen any videotape of what occurred in the elevator."
There's no wiggle room in what he and the NFL have said. Did the unnamed executive that AP mentions never see the video? Did he or she see it and never tell Goodell anything about it or even that he or she possessed it? That is incredibly hard to believe. And if Goodell saw it and has been lying all week, he likely wouldn't survive the fallout.
Someone at the NFL needs to explain what happened, because the AP report is specific that the tape was sent to the league office.
The NFL responded to the AP report with a basic statement that continued its insistence it had not seen the full video before Monday:
"We have no knowledge of this. We are not aware of anyone who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday. We will look into it," the statement said, via NBC Nightly News.
The full video shows Rice spitting on Janay Palmer, who was then his fiancee and is now his wife, once outside the elevator and once inside it, according to ESPN's "Outside the Lines" and the AP. When Palmer retaliated, he punched her.
ESPN talked to security staffers at the Atlantic City casino and hotel where the incident happened, and they offered details on what happened:
"The first thing he [Rice] said is, 'She's intoxicated. She drank too much. I'm just trying to get her to the room,'" one staffer said.
"When she regained consciousness she said, 'How could you do this to me? I'm the mother of your kid,'" that same staffer told "Outside the Lines."
With his fiancée still groggy, Rice dialed somebody on his cellphone and said, "I'm getting arrested tonight," the staffer said. Police arrived in 10 to 15 minutes.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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