Report: NFL Received Ray Rice Video In April

According to the Associated Press, the NFL in April received a DVD containing the surveillance video of Ray Rice slugging his fiancée, despite Roger Goodell claiming repeatedly that no one in the league had seen it before this week.

From Rob Maaddi at the AP:

A law enforcement official says he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee to an NFL executive three months ago, while league officers have insisted they didn't see the violent images until this week.

The person played The Associated Press a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number on April 9 confirming the video arrived. A female voice expresses thanks and says: "You're right. It's terrible."

The AP's law-enforcement source says the NFL never followed up after receiving the tape.

The AP's source says they weren't authorized to send the NFL the tape, but "shared it unsolicited, because they wanted the NFL to have it before deciding on Rice's punishment."

Update: The NFL has released the following statement in response to the AP's report.

"We have no knowledge of this. 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."

Here's what Roger Goodell said last night to CBS when asked if anyone at the NFL had seen the tape before Monday:

"No one in the NFL, to my knowledge, and I had been asked that same question and the answer to that is no. We were not granted that. We were told that was not something we would have access to. On multiple occasions, we asked for it. And on multiple occasions we were told no. I understand that there may be legal restrictions on them sharing that with us. And we've heard that from attorneys general and former attorneys general."

[ Associated Press]