Amid the controversy and claims it hadn't seen the Ray Rice video prior to its public release earlier this week, the NFL has opened an independent investigation on the matter and hired former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III to conduct the probe on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the president of the National Organization for Women, Terry O'Neill, said in a statement that the NFL should hire an independent investigator to handle the current state of affairs between the NFL, Ray Rice, Atlantic City Police Department and the Atlantic County prosecutor's office. After her comments regarding domestic violence in the NFL, it was reported shortly thereafter that the league received the Ray Rice video on April 9 despite claiming they hadn't seen it at all before Monday.
As new information keeps pouring out seemingly every few hours, Roger Goodell and the NFL were cornered and likely decided it was too much for them to keep issuing statements after each new allegation and/or piece of evidence was uncovered. Now Mueller will take over and he will have access to all NFL records. The 70-year-old became the sixth director of the FBI on September 4, 2001 under George W. Bush before stepping down on September 4, 2013.
On top of Mueller's extensive investigative experience (he's also a partner at the WilmerHale law firm), NFL owners John Mara of the New York Giants and Art Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers - two of the most respected and experienced team owners - will oversee all operations. These selections should make for a fair and transparent investigation, but many are unsure because Mueller's law firm has ties with the NFL, while Mara and Rooney are directly involved with the NFL.
Prior to the league announcing their decision to launch an independent investigation, the Atlantic County prosecutor who agreed to let Ray Rice to enter a pre-trial diversionary program, which would allow him to avoid conviction and a penalty of up to three to five years in prison of aggravated assault-bodily injury in the third degree and one count of simple assault, spoke publicly for the first time since the video's release.
"People need to understand, the choice was not PTI [pre-trial intervention] versus five years state prison," said Jim McClain, the prosecutor of Rice's case, on Wednesday. "The choice was not PTI versus the No Early Release Act on a 10-year sentence. The parameters as they existed were: Is this a PTI case or a probation case?"
"Even if they disagree with why I did what I did, I just want people to know the decision was made after careful consideration of the law, careful consideration of the facts, hearing the voice of the victim and considering all the parameters," he added, in this NBC Sports ProFootballTalk article. "I want people to have confidence in this agency, even if they don't agree with everything we do."
We'll be keeping an eye out to see how the independent investigation unfolds.
