Roger Goodell will not resign as NFL commissioner despite the controversy surrounding the league and its handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence case, according to Mark Maske of the Washington Post.
Roger Goodell remains adamant he won't resign, source says: "Never."
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) September 10, 2014
"No reason to," same source said in response to question of whether Goodell would consider resignation.
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) September 10, 2014
The commissioner has come under fire for conflicting reports about whether the league was aware of the content of the elevator video TMZ released on Monday. The video showed Rice strike and knock his then-fiancee Janay Palmer unconscious. The NFL suspended the former Baltimore Ravens running back indefinitely after the team released him, altering the original punishment of a two-game suspension given out in July.
Despite reports to the contrary, Goodell maintains the NFL did not see the surveillance video of Rice's assault until it was made public on Monday. An unnamed law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the NFL received the video back in April. An NFL spokesman refuted the AP's report in a statement on Wednesday.
Several people and organizations have called for Goodell to resign, including Keith Olbermann of ESPN and the National Organization for Women. While Goodell blamed Rice for being "ambiguous" in his description of the incident, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti apologized in a statement for the way the team handled the situation and said it should have pursued its own investigation more vigorously.