The NFLPA yesterday announced that it will "conduct its own investigation into how the league and the Ravens handled" the Ray Rice situation that will "run parallel to the NFLPA's appeal on behalf" of Rice, according to Donovan & Wilson of the Baltimore SUN. The investigation "will be led" by former federal prosecutor Richard Craig Smith, whose law firm "assisted the union in its investigation" of the Saints' bounty scandal two years ago and with the Dolphins' bullying scandal last year. Sources said that the NFLPA is "expected to focus a large part of its argument on Article 46 of the NFL collective bargaining agreement dealing with 'One Punishment,' which prohibits the NFL and teams from punishing a player multiple times for the same offense." Ravens DE and union rep Chris Canty said, "We have to address the process of what's going on. Obviously, we don't approve of the act, and it was definitely a situation where there was poor judgment involved. At the same time, you have to go about the process the right way when enforcing discipline." Meanwhile, Donovan & Wilson report Ravens officials yesterday instructed employees to "save any documents, texts and emails related" to Rice in "preparation for the NFL's investigation being conducted" by former FBI Dir Robert Mueller III. Ravens Senior VP/Public & Community Relations Kevin Byrne said that the club had "already been told that team officials would be interviewed as part of the investigation into how Rice's domestic violence case was handled, but they had not been given any specific dates or instructions on what documents to preserve" prior to yesterday (Baltimore SUN, 9/25).
TEMPERED EXPECTATIONS: USA TODAY's Tom Pelissero writes "don’t read too much into" the NFLPA investigation. This is "standard operating procedure for the union -- a sort of check and balance for the NFL-commissioned 'independent' investigation" by Mueller. The NFLPA said in a statement that it will “request that the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens cooperate in the interest of transparency.” But Pelissero notes they "don’t have to and may not, given Rice’s pending appeal and the Mueller investigation, so that limits the scope of Smith’s inquiry" (USA TODAY, 9/25).
IS MUELLER'S PROBE COMPROMISED? In Boston, Dan Shaughnessy writes it is "certainly possible that we’ll get true disclosure in the Mueller Report," but the investigation is "already compromised and will remain compromised." Despite Mueller’s "long and impressive career," his position as a partner at the DC-based WilmerHale law firm "demonstrates an enormous conflict of interest regarding any investigation involving the NFL." Shaughnessy: "This is not Mueller’s fault. It’s the NFL’s fault for picking a man from a law firm with so many connections to the NFL." The "conflict is the conflict, in and of itself," and it has "nothing to do with the integrity of the investigator." If the Mueller report "does not expose a coverup that topples Goodell and some of his high-level staffers, the 'internal investigation' is open to the charge that it’s just another bag job by the good old boys" (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/25).
