On Sept. 8, the NFL released a statement saying it had not seen the video of Ray Rice knocking out his fiancée, and insisted, "We requested from law enforcement any and all information about the incident, including the video from inside the elevator."

Yet Robert Mueller writes in his report: "League investigators did not contact any of the police officers who investigated the incident, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, or the Revel [casino] to attempt to obtain or view the in-elevator video or to obtain other information. No one from the League asked Rice or his lawyer whether they would make available for viewing the in-elevator video they received as part of criminal discovery in early April. And, after the initial contacts with the Ravens in the immediate aftermath of the incident, League investigators did not follow up with the Ravens to determine whether the team had additional information."

As Goodell told CBS in his tour, "When we met with Ray Rice and his representatives, it was ambiguous about what actually happened."

CBS’s Norah O’Donnell asked what was ambiguous about Janay Rice being dragged out of an elevator. After all, that video had been public for months.

Goodell replied, "We did not know what led up to that."

Goodell also told Rice that the video represented "a starkly different sequence of events" from what Rice had described when they met. But this is not true. When Rice appealed his suspension, Judge Barbara S. Jones ruled in his favor in November, stating clearly, "Rice did not lie or mislead the NFL at the June 16 meeting."