During the Ray Rice appeal hearing, NFLPA lawyer Heather McPhee testified Ravens president Dick Cass suggested that Rice understate the specifics of the elevator assault that has resulted in his initially official and now de facto banishment from the NFL.
On Wednesday night, the Ravens issued to the Baltimore Sun a statement from Cass addressing the testimony from McPhee.
“I never suggested to Ray that he soften or tone down his description of what happened,” Cass said, contending that he told Rice to: (1) “Tell the truth"; (2) “Don’t sugarcoat it"; and (3) “Assume the league saw all the video.”
OK. Fine. . . . Wait, what?
“Assume the league saw all the video.”
Why would the Ravens president tell Rice to assume the NFL saw all the video? Supposedly, no one from the league or the team had managed to get their hands on the video, despite their best efforts to get their hands on the video -- assuming that their best (or any) efforts actually were undertaken to get the video.
Maybe the advice from Cass to Rice is advice that should extend to everyone, including former FBI director Robert Mueller.
Assume the league saw all the video.
It’s a fair assumption to make. Even if the league didn’t actually see the video, the league easily could have gotten the video. All the league had to do was ask Rice for the video; during the appeal hearing, Rice said he had the video, and that he would have provided it to the league if the league has simply asked for it.
Making the assumption even more fair is the mounting proof that the NFL didn’t need to see the video because the NFL knew what happened. It knew what happened in part because Cass specifically advised Rice to "[a]ssume the league saw all the video” -- and because a former federal judge appointed by the NFL and NFLPA to resolve Rice’s appeal specifically concluded that Rice gave information consistent with the contents of the video that Rice assumed the league had seen.
