Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti has had a rough two weeks.
He gave a press conference yesterday in response to an ESPN investigative report into the team’s handling of Ray Rice’s domestic abuse case. Not only did Bisciotti say that a significant amount of the information in the story was “manufactured” from accounts provided by Ray Rice’s peeps, he believed that Rice’s camp is attempting to “build a case for reinstatement.”
The ESPN report in question was from “Outside the Lines” which reported Friday that Bisciotti, Ravens president Dick Cass and general manager Ozzie Newsome tried to persuade NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to be lenient with Rice following the former Raven’s February arrest.
According to the report, Ravens coach John Harbaugh urged team officials to cut Rice immediately after a first TMZ video, which showed Rice dragging Palmer out of the elevator, was released in February. The report also indicated Harbaugh went to Newsome in March and asked him to release the three Ravens, including Rice, who were arrested in the offseason.
Bisciotti defended the integrity of his organization during his presser. Newsome and Harbaugh issued rebuttals to the “Outside the Lines” report.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to believe the “Outside the Lines” report, specifically ESPN’s Don Van Natta who helped author the report. The texts between Bisciotti and Rice are there for public consumption. Bisciotti supported Rice when the first video came out, and the proof is there that he urged NFL commissioner/warden/playa hater Roger Goodell to exercise some leniency on Rice.
So what we have here is Bisciotti has gone from supporting Rice to essentially throwing him under the bus.
I think Bisciotti should be embarrassed for his role in the Rice fiasco.
I find it hard to believe that the Ravens organization DID NOT know what was on that video. And even if the organization didn’t know, it should have. Bisciotti and co. simply wanted the whole thing to go away, and cared too much about the bottom line to do the right thing.
Sure Bisciotti did more than Goodell in addressing the situation, but he still should have done more.
I am already on record stating that Goodell should lose his job over his bungling of the Rice domestic abuse case from the beginning. In a perfect world, both Goodell and Bisciotti would be ousted for their roles in how the Rice investigation was handled.
Too bad the owner can’t fire himself.
Categories: NFL
Leave a Reply