The NFL announced an investigation into the league’s handling of the Ray Rice scandal, bringing in former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III to investigate the organization’s process of handling evidence in the Rice case. The move comes after an AP report stated that a league executive received video of the confrontation five months before the evidence became public, despite claims to the contrary from Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The investigation will be overseen by New York Giants owner John Mara and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney. In a statement to the media, Mara and Rooney said, ”We have spoken with Mr. Mueller today, and he has informed us he is prepared to begin immediately. No timeline was established and we stressed that he should take as much time as necessary to complete a thorough investigation. We agreed that the scope of the investigation should be aimed at getting answers to specific questions, including what efforts were made by league staff to obtain the video of what took place inside the elevator and to determine whether, in fact, the video was ever delivered to someone at the league office, and if so, what happened to the video after it was delivered.”
Meanwhile, sponsors remain supportive of the league, with some taking a “wait and see” approach to the situation. Spokespersons for Anheuser-Busch and Pepsi, told USA Today Sports that they have no comment on the situation at this time and would advise if their position changes. Verizon Communications chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam said Thursday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference that the company has a “strong stance” against domestic violence, stating “I know Roger Goodell quite well, and he is a man of very high integrity and I will not believe that there is some conspiracy to cover this up,” McAdam said. “I’m at this point satisfied with the actions that they’ve taken,” according to the WSJ.
