Ray Rice Elevator Video

A high-ranking NFL source tells TMZ ... "No one at the league" saw the Ray Rice elevator video until TMZ Sports posted it Monday.

The Associated Press claims someone from law enforcement sent a DVD of the video to an NFL exec in April ... months before Roger Goodell handed down the 2-game suspension.

Up to now ... the NFL has hedged, saying to their knowledge no one in the organization got the tape. But now an NFL source tells us in no uncertain terms ... no one at the league got it. And the source goes on to define the league as 3 things -- NFL headquarters, NFL Films in New Jersey and the NFL Network in L.A.

The source goes on to say the NFL headquarters has around 475 employees at its NYC headquarters, and "no one at these 3 offices saw it."

Roger Goodell made a very bad assumption when he chose not to contact the casino to request a copy of the Ray Rice elevator video -- because law enforcement tells TMZ Sports ... that would have been perfectly legal.

Goodell said Tuesday he did not contact the Revel Casino because it was his understanding "the casino is prohibited from turning over material to a third party during a law enforcement proceeding" -- namely the criminal case against Rice.

But Paul Loriquet, the Director of Communications for the New Jersey Attorney General, tells TMZ bluntly, "No, it's not illegal."

To be clear ... our question was very specific: "Is it illegal for the casino to show or provide this material to a private entity in an ongoing investigation." His answer, "No, it's not illegal."

Mind you ... the NFL has some of the best lawyers in the country. It's inconceivable they didn't do basic legal research to either validate or invalidate Goodell's assumptions.

Floyd Mayweather claims he hadn't seen the new elevator footage of Ray Rice before he went after the NFL for not sticking by their 2 game suspension ... and now he's apologizing to the league.

"I was just getting word from people that there was a video out there. I didn't know because I'm training for a fight," Mayweather said.

"If I offended anyone, I apologize."

Just one problem ... when he made his original comments, Floyd said he HAD seen the video.

Hmmm.

Mayweather had ripped the NFL for changing Rice's 2-game suspension to an indefinite one once the new video came to light. He claimed the league should have stuck to it's original ruling.

Besides the comments about the NFL, Mayweather had also said that Ray was not the worst wife-beater in the country ... his incident just happened to be caught on tape.

An NFL executive got the video of Ray Rice punching Janay way back in April -- and the exec got it from someone in law enforcement ... according to a new report.

The Associated Press is saying a source claims he sent a copy of the video -- first posted by TMZ Sports on Monday -- to the NFL exec, and even got a voicemail from a NFL offices phone number confirming receipt of the video on April 9.

The AP says the source actually played the 12-second VM for them -- and a female voice is heard saying thanks for sending the video and described it as "terrible."

Here's what's curious -- why would the law enforcement official, who admits he was not authorized to share the video, leave his phone number with someone in the NFL ... therefore allowing the leak to be traced back to him?

The United States Congress has inserted itself in the Ray Rice scandal ... the House Judiciary Committee has just fired off a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell ... demanding that he come clean.

The letter -- signed by 12 members of the Committee and obtained by TMZ Sports -- notes that Goodell has said he had requested the video but never got it. But the Committee is skeptical, writing, "To our knowledge the public has not been informed as to specifically how and in what context the request was made, and specifically how relevant law enforcement responded."

TMZ has reported ... Goodell's request was to law enforcement but NOT the Casino, which would have gladly anted up the video. And we reported Rice's lawyer had a copy.

The Committee goes on, "Nor has there been a full explanation as to whether the video was requested of others, such as Mr. Rice's attorney or the casino where the incident occurred (and if not, why not), or whether any employees, agents, or consultants of the league or any of its teams outside of your office had access of the video prior to September 8."

He ran a crappy investigation, but Mike Golic says Roger Goodell will NOT lose his job over the Ray Rice debacle ... in fact, Golic says Goodell deserves to stay in power.

The co-host of ESPN's "Mike & Mike" radio show was out in NYC -- when he stated his case.

Too soon? Apparently not ... according to Gilbert Gottfried who finally decided to put Ray Rice in the comedy crosshairs.

"Obviously Ray Rice misunderstood me when I said 'She's hot, you should definitely hit that!'" ... Gilbert tweeted.

Cracking jokes on timely news stories is kinda Gilbert's thing -- and he also knows there can be consequences ... like when he was fired from his job as the voice of the AFLAC duck back in 2011 after joking about the tsunami in Japan.

Senator John McCain says Roger Goodell has serious "credibility issues" ... and should get Condoleezza Rice on the phone ASAP to help clean up his mess.

McCain was out in D.C. Tuesday when he was asked how he felt about the Ray Rice video and how the NFL was handling the situation -- and that's when McCain fired the shot at Goodell.

As for talk that Condoleezza could replace Goodell as NFL Commish, McCain doesn't exactly sign off on that -- but says Rice "would be a good person for [Goodell] to call in and have a discussion with."

He adds, "I think she could help him."

FYI -- Condoleezza is a huge football fan and has expressed interest in the NFL job before. She's currently on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.

As for McCain, he took one last parting shot ... at his beloved Arizona Diamondbacks.

Floyd Mayweather says Ray Rice is far from the WORST of the domestic abusers in America -- only problem is that Ray got caught on video.

Mayweather -- who spent time in jail for beating up his baby mama a few years ago -- spoke to Fight Hub TV and said he's pulling for Rice ... "I wish something positive out of the situation."

And that's when Floyd tried to explain why Ray's attack wasn't that bad compared to other wife-beaters -- "[There are] a lot worse things that go on in other people's households also ... it's just not caught on video."

There's more ... when asked about his own domestic abuse case -- Mayweather used the O.J. Simpson defense to try to explain why he was wrongly convicted a few years ago.

"I'm pretty sure that with my situation, no bumps, no bruises, no nothing ... with OJ and Nicole, you seen pictures. With Chris Brown and Rihanna, you seen pictures. With Ochocinco and Evelyn, you seen pictures."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he does NOT expect to be fired for the way he handled the Ray Rice situation ... claiming he's "used to criticism."

Goodell spoke with Norah O'Donnell on CBS News Tuesday night -- and he assured her his job as the head of the league is safe.

Sure it is.

And get this ... even after he saw the video from OUTSIDE the elevator, Goodell told O'Donnell it was "ambiguous what actually happened."

O'Donnell shot back -- "But what was ambiguous about her laying unconscious on the floor being dragged out by her feet?"

"There was nothing ambiguous about that," Goodell admitted ... "That was the result that we saw. We did not know what led up to that. We did not know the details of that."

Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti says the team DID try to obtain the Ray Rice elevator video from the Revel Hotel & Casino ... but were initially shot down ... and simply gave up.

Bisciotti just penned a letter to fans ... saying, "You deserve an explanation" -- and spells out how the team handled the Rice situation from the start.

In his letter, Bisciotti says ... "We contacted the casino management and asked if there was video of the incident from inside the elevator that we could see. The casino would not share such video."

He claims the Ravens then contacted police and prosecutors -- but were shut down then, too.

But Bisciotti says the team's hunt for the video officially ended in March -- when Ray was charged with aggravated assault.

"At this point, we decided to defer action until completion of the court proceedings. We stopped seeking to view or obtain a copy of the video. We halted our fact-finding."

Bisciotti admits ... "That was a mistake on our part."

The police had seen video from inside the elevator. The prosecutor and the judge, who had also seen such video, allowed Ray into the program that would eventually clear him of the assault charge.

The Ravens owner says the team did not see the footage from inside the elevator until Sept. 8th -- when TMZ Sports posted it -- and team honchos made a quick decision to fire Rice.

"Seeing that video changed everything. We should have seen it earlier. We should have pursued our own investigation more vigorously. We didn’t and we were wrong."

Roger Goodell is now doing somersaults to explain why he didn't simply go to the casino and ask for a copy of the Ray Rice elevator video.

Goodell told CBS News, he knew a tape existed and went to law enforcement and asked for a copy but the request was rejected.

So why didn't he then simply go to directly to the source -- the Revel Casino?

Goodell said, "I don't know how TMZ or any other website gets their info. We are particularly reliant on law enforcement, that's the most reliable, the most credible. We don't seek to get that information from sources who are not credible."

THIS MAKES NO SENSE. The police got the tape from the casino, so the police video CANNOT be more credible than the source.

TMZ Sports broke the story ... casino employees told us if the NFL would have requested the video they would have gladly provided it, but no one asked.

An NFL source told TMZ, Tuesday afternoon ... Goodell felt it would be wrong to "go around" law enforcement by contacting the casino and looking at the tape. But we're told all law enforcement told Goodell is they're not giving him the tape -- not that him looking at the tape would interfere with their investigation. Fact is ... it wouldn't.

Ray Rice's wife just WENT OFF on Instagram -- cussing out an Internet troll who ripped her for defending her husband.

Janay Rice hurled the expletives at a user named "Gossipallday" -- who had commented on a post Janay wrote this morning in which she defended Ray and blamed the media for ruining their lives.

"Gossipallday" wrote ... "Girl shut the hell up!!! Weak ass little girl!!! How dare you, excuse your HUSBAND'S behavior for a check??!"

Janay fired back ... writing, "And who asked you! Bitch bye get a f**king life and stop worrying about mine. Typical lame broad."

Earlier today, Ray had said Janay was strong and the family was "in good spirits" -- but it's clear, she's still very much on edge.

Ray Rice is now talking about how he's handling the fall-out in the wake of the brutal elevator video ... saying, "I have to be strong for my wife."

One day after Ray was cut from the Ravens and suspended by the NFL, Rice opened up to ESPN ... telling the network, "[Janay] is so strong. We are in good spirits."

Ray continued, "We have a lot of people praying for us and we’ll continue to support each other. I have to be there for [Janay] and my family right now and work through this.”

The NFL NEVER contacted the casino to request video of Ray Rice brutalizing his fiancee ... TMZ Sports has learned. Commissioner Roger Goodell made his disciplinary decision in the dark, which raises the question ... Is that the way he wanted it?

Sources connected with the Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City tell TMZ Sports ... NO ONE from the NFL ever asked for the video inside the elevator ... video that was compelling enough to get Rice instantly fired.

Sources who worked at the casino at the time of the incident tell us ... if the NFL had asked for the video, they would have gladly complied. Former employees have told us someone with an affiliation to the NFL saw the video, but we are now certain that someone was not from Goodell's office or the core NFL executives.

Without video ... Goodell blindly justified the initial 2-game suspension, based on the only evidence they had -- from the two people in the elevator, who called it mutual combat.

Multiple sources tell TMZ Sports ... the casino made a copy of the elevator surveillance video for police. We're also told Rice's lawyer had a copy of the video, which he got in the criminal case.

An NFL source tells us they requested "any and all information" from law enforcement in the criminal case but got nothing because it was a pending case. But the NFL had other options ... namely going to the casino or Rice's lawyer -- but the NFL never bothered to ask.

BTW ... it may sound crazy for Rice's lawyer to voluntarily hand over the video, but the NFL had a lot of leverage ... in the form of severe penalties if Rice didn't ante up the tape.

So the question ... does the NFL have incompetent investigators, or was it just easier to protect a player and turn a blind eye to video that would have forced Goodell's hand? Both scenarios are pretty disgusting.

Several Baltimore Ravens players are saying ... they will not treat Ray Rice like an outcast -- and have vowed to support him as a friend ... team sources tell TMZ Sports.

Our sources tell us ... multiple players have already reached out to Ray to let him know they won't turn their backs on him in the wake of new elevator video showing the running back attacking his then-fiancee.

We're told Ray has apologized to some of his teammates for his actions and has said that he is actively seeking counseling and going to church in an effort to move on with his life.