Did The NFL Make Up A Story About Ray Rice’s Wife?
After Judge Barbara S. Jones overturned the NFL’s indefinite suspension of Ray Rice, Deadspin started pouring over the 17-page ruling. They underlined one particular sentence, detailing his wife Janay’s testimony in the hearing about the June 16th meeting with Roger Goodell:
On June 16, when Birch directed the conversation to her and asked how she felt, she couldn’t speak; she just cried and said “I’m just ready for it to be over.”
Within hours of her husband’s reinstatement, ESPN released a first-person interview with Janay by Jemele Hill. She described the meeting in that interview, which was very consistent with her testimony:
I really didn’t think they would ask me any questions, but I was asked one. I was surprised I was asked anything at all. One of the NFL executives asked me how I felt about everything. And I broke down in tears. I could hardly get a word out. I just told him that I was ready for this to be over.
Deadspin found this all very interesting, as they compared it to the story Sports Illustrated columnist (and horrible tweeter) Peter King wrote after the initial two-game suspension:
Rice’s wife, a source said, made a moving and apparently convincing case to Goodell during a June 16 hearing at Goodell’s office in Manhattan—attended by Rice, GM Ozzie Newsome, club president Dick Cass of Baltimore; and Goodell, Jeff Pash and Adolpho Birch of the league—that the incident in the hotel elevator was a one-time event, and nothing physical had happened in their relationship before or since. She urged Goodell, the source said, to not ruin Rice’s image and career with his sanctions.
So, either Janay Rice is lying about what happened in that meeting, or King’s source (possibly the NFL) is. Of course, a former federal judge just declared poppycock on Goodell’s excuse that Ray Rice lied in that very meeting, so consider that while making your opinion.
Read more at deadspin.com
Read More Stories From the IB Wire
.
.
