Pete Carroll defends NFL’s handling of Ray Rice incident

Despite all the criticism of his handling of the Ray Rice case, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll says NFL commissioner Roger Goodell “got it right.”

Carroll spoke with reporters about the ongoing domestic violence controversy involving Rice and his wife at his weekly Wednesday press conference.

“It’s an extremely serious situation and I think that they’ve got it right,” Carroll said of the NFL’s initial two-game suspension, followed by Rice’s expulsion from the league when new video surfaced earlier this week of Rice knocking his wife out with a punch in a New Jersey hotel elevator.

Carroll’s comments came before new reports out Wednesday disputed Goodell’s claims league officials had not seen the full video prior to this week.

Carroll said he spoke with players and coaches in a team meeting at Seahawks headquarters Wednesday about the situation, saying it has forever changed his outlook about both domestic violence and the way he evaluates players.

“It will never be the same,” Carroll said. “I’ve got to admit, my awareness is different than it was and I don’t think it will ever be the same as it was. I’m glad that I can say that. Hopefully we can prevent, we can head off any issue that could come up in the future.”

Carroll said he’s hopeful both the league and society in general can benefit from all the attention about domestic violence.

“We will be better off because of it. And we will all think differently. It’s unfortunate that we’ve had to learn that. For people that have been involved with that, our hearts go out to them, and the depth of their pain. Hopefully we will just do better, and our players will be better for it.”

As for the league’s handling of the incident, Carroll said it’s unfortunate it took so long for all of the facts in the case to emerge and the league to take stronger action against Rice months after his initial suspension.

“It’s tough that everybody is on him so hard about it. It seems like he used the information well once he got it,” Carroll said.

Many others disagree, with increased calls for Goodell’s resignation coming from a number of camps Wednesday including the National Organization for Women.