"Outside the Lines" interviewed more than 20 sources over the past 11 days -- team officials, current and former league officials, NFL Players Association representatives and associates, advisers and friends of Ray Rice -- and found a pattern of misinformation and misdirection employed by the Ravens and the NFL since he assaulted Janay Rice in an Atlantic City elevator.

The NFL took an uncharacteristically passive approach when it came to gathering evidence, opening itself up to widespread criticism, allegations of inconsistent approaches to player discipline and questions about whether Roger Goodell gave Rice -- the corporate face of the Baltimore franchise -- a light punishment as a favor to his good friend Steve Bisciotti. Four sources said Ravens executives, including Bisciotti and Ozzie Newsome, urged Goodell and other league executives to give Rice no more than a two-game suspension, and that's what Goodell did on July 24.

Goodell has been committed to player discipline, but did not immediately act when he learned verbally or visually of Rice's actions.

Within hours of the elevator attack, an employee of the Ravens was describing the inside-elevator video to friends in graphic detail, telling confidants that Rice knocked out his then-fiancée with a punch and that the video was "really bad," according to a source close to a Ravens official.

John Harbaugh urged the Ravens to release Rice immediately, according to sources.