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Ravens owner Bisciotti claims misinformation claims are false
NFL
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OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti refuted a report suggesting he and other team officials tried to persuade the NFL to be lenient on Ray Rice after the running back was arrested in February for knocking out his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City elevator.Bisciotti, who rarely met with the media before the Rice saga, said Monday he felt it necessary to respond to an ESPN story last week that described he, president Dick Cass and general manager Ozzie Newsome pushing Commissioner Roger Goodell for leniency for Rice.“Their accusations didn’t jibe with what we know is fact,” said Bisciotti, who, sitting in a raised leather chair square in the middle of a raised stage at his team’s training facility, also denied that he contacted the league on Rice’s behalf.“I don’t think the league would take too kindly to us badgering them,” Bisciotti said. “I didn’t really care. If it was going to be a precedent-setting (suspension of) four or six games, I would have told Ray not to appeal it.“I expected four of six games and I was surprised as everybody else that it was two.”The two games were Rice’s original suspension by the league — the Ravens took no action at the time — for punching Janay Palmer in a casino on Feb. 15.