Baltimore Ravens Owner Says ESPN Report On Ray Ray False

The owner of the Baltimore Ravens NFL team held a press conference Monday to address allegations that the football team had knowledge of the Ray Rice surveillance video before it was released to the public.

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti spoke at a press conference to refute an article written by ESPN's Outside The Lines that claimed the team and the league knew about the video before it was released to the public by TMZ three weeks ago. Bisciotti said at the press conference that the "sources" cited in the article are attempting to have Rice reinstated to the team.

"Our integrity and character were being called into question. My feeling when I read [ESPN's report] was a couple of things. I think it says it took them 11 days to write it, but they only gave us two hours to respond," Bisciotti said.

"I think it's obvious that the majority of sources are people that work for Ray. Almost everything in there is anonymous, but it's clear from the subject matter that it's Ray's attorney, it's Ray's agent, and Ray's friends. They are building a case for reinstatement, and the best way to build a case for reinstatement is to make everybody else look like they're lying. They're accusations didn't jive with what we knew as fact."

Rice was dropped by the Ravens earlier this month when a second surveillance video surfaced showing him punching his wife and subsequently knocking her unconscious in a hotel elevator in Atlantic City earlier this year. The NFL claims that before the release of that video, the only footage they saw was Rice dragging his unconscious wife out of an elevator, but they could not prove he had physically abused her.