Bell: Mueller report ignores videotape inconsistencies
Thud.
That's the sound effect from the report released Thursday by former FBI director Robert Mueller that aimed to get to bottom of the NFL's bungling of the Ray Rice case.
All that hype and no sizzle. Nobody's head — including Commissioner Roger Goodell's — has been served on a platter. No smoking gun was discovered.
And the inside-the-elevator video showing Rice knocking out then-fiancée Janay Palmer, which according to The Associated Press was sent to the NFL by an anonymous law enforcement source in April, months before it wound up in the possession of TMZ and released publicly, was never found.
What of the woman at NFL headquarters who supposedly left a voicemail message to the source confirming receipt of the videotape? Whoever she is, if she exists, have her call Mueller.
The report — from an investigation deemed "independent" but paid for by the NFL, conducted without the cooperation of the AP and with Mueller associated with a law firm with ties to the league — essentially backed up what the NFL contended for weeks as it wallowed in crisis mode.
I still wonder how TMZ could wind up with the videotape and the powerful NFL, with all of its law enforcement connections, could not secure it in its own right.
The report, limited by the scope of its investigation and by the lack of subpoena power, doesn't touch a key inconsistency asserted in a report in December by ESPN's Outside The Lines that contended the NFL's security chief did not approach the Atlantic City Police Department about obtaining the videotape – contradicting a previous statement by Goodell in a memo to NFL owners.
According to the Mueller report, Baltimore Ravens officials were given a detailed account of what occurred inside the elevator within days of the Feb. 15 incident at the Revel casino in Atlantic City.
Mueller's report still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. On the scale of revelation, it is such a contrast to the last time a report from an independent investigation involving a high-profile NFL situation was released.
Remember the Ted Wells Report? That sent shockwaves through the league.
The Wells Report peeled back so many layers of the Miami Dolphins' bullying scandal, starring Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin.
Mueller's report concluded that the NFL dropped the ball, that it should have demonstrated more effort to pursue additional evidence after learning of the basics of the Rice scenario.
Goodell repeatedly has acknowledged that he made tremendous mistakes. Yet the report doesn't directly link Goodell to seeing the inside-the-elevator video — the most major question as the investigation was launched.
Recommendations from Mueller about what the NFL can do moving forward have already been addressed in the revised personal conduct policy that the league recently instituted.
Some team owners in recent weeks indicated that the Mueller report might influence their support for Goodell. We'll see. As much as the report sheds light on how NFL and Ravens officials knew details of what occurred inside the elevator, it falls short of implicating Goodell.
In fact, shortly after the report was released, New York Giants co-owner John Mara, who with Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II was charged to oversee the investigation, told reporters that the report's conclusion fortifies the support that Goodell receives from NFL owners.
It remains to be seen whether this whole ordeal will result in some sort of discipline that players have suggested be imposed on Goodell, who earned more than $44 million in salary, bonuses and pension payouts in 2013.
Goodell's performance is reviewed on an annual basis by a three-member compensation committee of owners. Typically, in March, the committee makes recommendations to the full ownership body regarding the commissioner's annual bonuses.
It's doubtful the Mueller report provided new answers to move the needle in that process.
But it sure backs up some of what the league has contended for a while about the biggest fumble of the season.