7 Things We Learned From Roger Goodell's Interview About the Ray Rice Situation on CBS

There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not Goodell and the NFL actually saw the video of Rice punching Palmer prior to TMZ Sports releasing it. But in his interview with CBS, Goodell reiterated that the league had not seen it until Monday.

"No one in the NFL [saw the video], to my knowledge," Goodell said.

Goodell believes that the NFL did everything that they could do to try and get the tape but that they were under the impression that there were legal issues that prevented law enforcement from giving the video to them.

"On multiple occasions, we asked for it," Goodell said. "And on multiple occasions we were told no. I understand that there may be legal restrictions on them sharing that with us. And we've heard that from attorneys general and former attorneys general."

To his credit, Goodell is still taking responsibility for giving Rice a two-game suspension in July that was, quite frankly, a joke. While discussing the first video that TMZ Sports released earlier this year, which showed Rice dragging Palmer out of an elevator at the Revel hotel and casino, Goodell acknowledged the mistake he made when he suspended Rice for just two games.

"There was nothing ambiguous about [the first video]," he said. "That was the result that we saw. We did not know what led up to that. We did not know the details of that. We asked for that on several occasions. It was unacceptable in and of itself what we saw on the first tape. And that's why we took action, albeit insufficient action. And we acknowledge that, we took responsibility for that—I did personally—and I take responsibility for that now."

As of right now, the former Ravens running back has been suspended by the NFL "indefinitely." And his NFL career might be over. "I don't rule that out," Goodell said.

But Rice also might be able to work his way back into the league—if he's able to work on his issues during his hiatus from the NFL.

"He would have to make sure that we are fully confident that he is addressing this issue," Goodell said. "Clearly, he has paid a price for the actions he's already taken."

While Goodell didn't rule out the possibility of Rice making a return to the league, he admitted that he hasn't really given much thought to what Rice needs to do during his time away from football in order to convince Goodell that he deserves to make a comeback.

"I haven't thought about that because, right now, I think the focus is he's got a lot of work to do, the family has a lot of work to do," Goodell said. "We're going to obviously provide whatever resources we can to help them work through that."

It's safe to say that we all knew this before Goodell's CBS interview. But he acknowledged it during the interview and spoke at length about the steps the NFL is taking to try and eradicate the problem.

"We're saying we have a problem," he said. "We have one incident, that's a problem…We have had lots of conversations, lots of listening and learning right here in this room with experts, not just in the last two weeks or three weeks or month, but over the last couple of years to say, 'How can we deal with this issue better? How can we prevent the cases from happening?'"

For all of those people out there yelling, "FIRE GOODELL," the NFL Commissioner isn't worried about losing his job anytime soon.

"I'm used to criticism," he said. "I'm used to that. Every day, I have to earn my stripes. Every day, I have to...do a better job. And that's my responsibility to the game, to the NFL, and to what I see as society. People expect a lot from the NFL. We accept that. We embrace that. That's our opportunity to make a difference not just in the NFL, but in society in general. We have that ability. We have that influence. And we have to do that."