This entire situation is getting increasingly disturbing.

It was TMZ that had possession of and chose to leak the full video of Ray Rice’s assault on his then-fiance Janay Palmer (now Janay Rice).

In the 24 hours since the scandalous video was made available in full to the public, there has been a huge backlash against Rice, the Baltimore Ravens, and the NFL.

The latter two parties, in an effort to clean up their bad PR, made the decision to dump Rice.

While this is the most logical course of action, the events that occurred months before cannot be erased or overlooked.

What Ray Rice did to his partner in that elevator is only the unfortunate beginning.

The behavior of the Baltimore Ravens and NFL when the situation first came to light should have been enough for decisive action. Somehow a video of Rice dragging a woman’s unconscious body out of the elevator wasn’t nearly as alarming to these organizations as it SHOULD have been.

Baltimore @Ravens say the team will offer an exchange for Ray Rice jerseys at stadium stores http://t.co/fUn8L3V32G pic.twitter.com/d29D4vix4B

— Mashable (@mashable) September 9, 2014

Instead, Mrs. Rice was forced to sit side-by-side with the man who attacked her. She was forced to “own her role” in getting KNOCKED OUT. To add insult to previous injuries, the Baltimore Ravens chose to declare this on Twitter.

By the way Ravens, deleting that tweet and the unbelievably gross Rice quote that followed, will not make them go away.

Once on the internet, always on the internet.

As for the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell finds himself having to explain whether or not a disturbing accusation leveled at him and the NFL by TMZ is true.

TMZ’s Latest Findings: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Ignored Ray Rice Video http://t.co/9WzWzToptU pic.twitter.com/IPcXbm9Bwj

— Boston.com Sports (@BDCSports) September 9, 2014

The site is currently claiming that the NFL did not see the full elevator assault tape at all.

Not because the organization lacked the ability to gain access to it, but because they never requested it! The implication is that the NFL never had any intention of viewing the tape at all.

This would also mean that Rice was given a virtual slap on the wrist because Goodall made his decision without even bothering with a rather huge piece of important evidence.

As TMZ pointed out, Goodall made his decision with regard to the two game ban because the abuser and abuse victim sat down and “agreed” that they were both responsible for what happened.

A TMZ Sports report says the #NFL never requested the Ray Rice video. FULL STORY: http://t.co/9590UwYp7C pic.twitter.com/JB9Lg80e7q

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) September 9, 2014

This is very very upsetting information to consider.

It would mean that the NFL and Baltimore Ravens BOTH had a hand in not only forcing a woman to protect her attacker, but to stand up for him and actually apologize for her unfortunate situation.

The deletion of tweets and termination of Ray Rice’s contract cannot erase that kind of tasteless and inconsiderate behavior.

Now is the time to ask tough questions…like whether or not certain parties should be joining Ray Rice as former employees of the NFL.