Did an NFL Executive Watch the Ray Rice Tape Months Ago?

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Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice was suspended indefinitely from the NFL after TMZ leaked a tape of him assaulting his now-wife, Janay, in an Atlantic City hotel elevator. But according to a new report, the NFL may have had the footage for months without doing anything about it.

A law enforcement source told the Associated Press he sent the video to an NFL executive five months ago; he said he was unauthorized to do so, but felt the league needed to see it. He played a 12-second voicemail from a female executive, who said "You're right. It's terrible," but said he had no further contact with the league and has no concrete proof anyone watched the video.

This claim comes after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CBS This Morning nobody in the league had seen the footage until Monday. He told Norah O'Donnell that the league attempted to see it multiple times but was hampered by legal restrictions.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league was not aware of anyone having or seeing the video. "We will look into it," he said. Former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III will lead an investigation into how the league handled the case against Rice.

Megan Friedman is the former managing editor of the Newsroom at Hearst. She's worked at NBC and Time, and is a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.