(SportsNetwork.com) – Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome testified
under oath Thursday that he heard suspended running back Ray Rice tell NFL
Commissioner Roger Goodell he struck his then-fiancee in a casino elevator in
February, according to ESPN.
Newsome’s testimony on the second and final day of Rice’s appeal hearing would
seem to contradict what the NFL commissioner has previously said the running
back told him during a disciplinary hearing on June 16.
Goodell has said Rice was “ambiguous” about what happened in the elevator at
the Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.
The commissioner, who testified on Wednesday, suspended Rice indefinitely on
Sept. 8 after video of him striking the woman who is now his wife was posted
online by TMZ. Rice was released by the Ravens on the same day.
Goodell originally suspended Rice for two games after their meeting in June,
but later said he “didn’t get it right.”
Rice argues that the league violated labor laws by increasing his punishment
after the video surfaced.
He and his wife testified on Thursday.
Former U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones presided over the appeal hearing
and will now decide whether or not Rice is reinstated.
It was the first time an NFL disciplinary hearing was conducted with a neutral
arbitrator, something the NFL Players Association said “enhances the
credibility and integrity of our business” and is the “due process that every
athlete deserves.”
