Former NFL executive Bill Polian was brought onto SportsCenter this morning to give some insight into the NFL's bungling of the Ray Rice situation. He was specifically asked if he, as someone who has worked in the NFL office, thought it was possible for an NFL executive to have obtained a copy of the tape showing Ray Rice knocking out his then-fiancée in an elevator, as was reported by the AP yesterday, and not have shown that tape to Roger Goodell or any other NFL execs.
The video above is Polian's answer to that question, which aired on SportsCenter at 10:47 a.m. Here is a transcription of what he said:
It is very puzzling to me. As a matter of fact, I worked as a vice president in the NFL office in 1993, with respect to football operations. I know how the office works, I've physically been there—it was a different building, not the one they're in now—but it's very difficult for me to understand how that could happen. Especially when you're in a situation that is as high-profile as that particular incident is. It's puzzling, and I have as many questions as everyone else. It's outside my area of expertise. For all the years that I was in the NFL, NFL security, and the NFL's ability to protect its integrity, the so-called "protection of the shield," was unmatched in American business. Forget about sports—in American business. I mean, you did not step out of line in the NFL, and if you did, there was an unwritten rule that when you were called into the office—and met with someone who was the commissioner or there at the behest of the commissioner—that you better come clean, that you better tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And if you work in the office, you better be on top of the details. The office was there to make sure that the clubs, the players, the reputation of the NFL reamined unsullied. That goes back to the 1960's with the administration of Pete Rozelle. So this is totally, totally out of character for what I know of the NFL office.
That segment ended up getting cut short, perhaps due to a technical mishap, and so Polian was brought back on the air at 11:08 a.m., at which point he was asked the exact same question by Chris McKendry.
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