Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner, is being urged to resign after not taking appropriate measures after the release of footage involving Ray Rice’s domestic abuse.

Roger Goodell is considered by many to be the strictest commissioner in NFL history, dishing out big penalties, bans and suspensions for recent offenses. In 2012, Goodell punished Sean Payton, head coach of the New Orleans Saints, when Payton’s team was a part a bounty scandal, telling The Monday Morning Quarterback: “Ignorance was not a suitable defense.” Goodell is now slipping on his own words.

The NFL stated last Tuesday that they were not given any further evidence of the Ray Rice case. This statement was later questioned due to an anonymous law enforcement official reporting to BET that he sent the video to an NFL executive in April. The question is, if the NFL did see the video, why would the NFL or Roger Goodell want people to believe that they did not see it, even if they did?

Staff at The Atlantic City Hotel, the scene of the incident, is saying that the NFL never requested to see the footage, and that if they had, they would have readily provided it, according to TMZ.

Similar to the New Orleans bounty scandal, Goodell is hiding behind his ignorance. After TMZ released the full video of Rice assaulting his then fiancé, the suspension to Ray Rice was increased from two games to an indefinite suspension that requires Rice to apply for reinstatement into the NFL. The question is whether or not Goodell’s excuse that he wasn’t given the video enough to save his job.

I believe that Goodell already lost his job or at least his leverage. How can he fight the NFL Players’ Association, if they claim he holds double standards?

In the Ray Rice case, Goodell based his initial suspension solely off of the footage of Ray Rice dragging his then-fiancé’s lifeless body out of the elevator. What did Goodell think happened? Was this not enough to assume the worst?

In the video, Ray Rice punched his fiancé in the head as she stepped towards him. She then collapsed, and on the way down, hit her head on the support rail, knocking herself unconscious. According to the NY Post, one of the workers could be heard saying: “She’s drunk, right?” and “No cops.”

Reactions to the footage varied. Bomani Jones of ESPN tweeted, “I am kind of curious what that video showed people that they didn’t already assume was the case.”

Goodell will continue to face scrutiny. His inconsistent penalties have gotten old; it won’t be long before something like this costs him his job.

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