Goodell failed miserably in Rice case

As NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell has delivered harsh punishment in response to player arrests and misconduct that embarrasses teams, the league or his precious "Shield."

Today, the commissioner should take a real hard look in the mirror because he fell woefully short at a critical hour with his horrendous handling of this Ray Rice situation.

Goodell's light punishment initially was only made worse by release of the elevator tape that shows Rice knocking unconscious his then-fiancee with a violent punch. And now TMZ, which obtained the tape, reported Tuesday morning that the NFL didn't try very hard to review the tape during its investigation.

TMZ reports that the league didn't even ask the Atlantic City casino for a copy of their tape. In response, the league released a statement to PFT saying that it asked for the tape from law enforcement but was denied because it was an ongoing criminal investigation.

How convenient.

You mean, an entity with the power of the NFL, with its own investigative expertise and reach, didn't bother to ask the casino for the tape? Rice's lawyer reportedly had a copy, too. Why not ask him?

Why not use the weight of its power to get to the very bottom of what happened?

This, of course, assumes that the NFL is telling the truth when it says nobody connected with the league reviewed that tape, which still seems hard to believe.

Here's a question that bothers me: Why did Goodell and the Baltimore Ravens even need to see Rice punching his girlfriend before they decided that a harsher punishment was necessary? Until Monday, the only video available was the one that showed Rice dragging the woman out of the elevator, unconscious.

Was that not enough shock and disgust to warrant more than a two-game suspension? Maybe Rice fooled Goodell and his employer with his version of events. But he acknowledged striking his fiancée and we saw him dragging her body. And yet the Ravens and Goodell only found that worthy of a two-game suspension.

Shame on them.

The only reason they were moved to action Monday – Ravens released Rice and the league suspended him indefinitely – is because of public outrage over the tape. That's the only reason.

Goodell works on behalf of the owners and there's a debate now about whether he should be removed from that office. That's a valid conversation.

Goodell's integrity looks gone right now. He had a chance to make a real statement about the league's view on domestic violence. Instead, he blew it and made the NFL look horrible. And now everyone is engaged in full damage control.