where there were violence against women were extremely tough. >> but for now, he is a free man. out of bail. cheers not for a gold medal blade runner, but a killer whose future lies very much in the balance. xx. tonight on unguarded with rachel nichols. the question whether roger goodell should still be running the nfl has reached the u.s. senate. >> what will the nfl do to impose stringent punishment. >> boxer floyd mayweather faces tough questions on his domestic violence history. off awe when . >> ray rice's friend, weighs in.

>> in a week when racism again tarnished the nba, doc rivers tells his story. off awe someone broke in our house. welcome to unguarded. a week ago it would have been unimaginable that america's most popular sport would be under investigation by a former direct or of the f and its commissioner would be hearing calls for his job. yet that is where the nfl and roger goodell find themselves tonight. goodell is under fire with questions what he knew and when after running back ray rice knocked his wife unconscious in a casino elevator. we have seen an angry reaction from players look this one from former st. john than vilma. he should be held accountable for his lack of action just like ray rice has been held

accountable for his actions. >> and senator bloomenthal -- >> i want to welcome senator bloomenthal in now. thank you for joining us, senator. >> thank you, rachel. >> i want to follow up on the quote we put up. you are talking how several times roger goodell said the nfl never had the videotape inside the casino elevator, but a recent ap report revealed a voice mail from the league office confirming they in fact had the video. how egregious is senate. >> i think that this credibility issue is extremely egregious because it reflects on roger goodell's good faith in moving forward with more aggressive action against the domestic

violence. the bigger to here. what will the nfl do to impose more stringent punishment, but also to educate its players and fans about the seriousness and severity of this problem. >> well the national organization for women is reporting during roger goodell's tenure as xhcommissioner there have been 56 instances. the nfl suspended players for only 13 games combined. >> clearly the nfl has failed before. if roger goodell lied to the american people about something as serious as whether he had this graphic, gripping tape, he has to go for the sack of the nfl and the fans. >> i want to get into this idea of the public trust. we have seen several members of congress come out against goodell in recent days. senator earlier this clear you were within of 50 senators who wrote a letter asking goodell to intervene.

get the redskins name changed. you noted an nfl team should not be nick named something so many people kid a racial slur. it seems like you have issues with goodell's moral authority. why is congress still granting the nfl an antitrust exemption? >> there ought to be scrutiny to a number of those special breaks that the nfl receives that give it a position public trust. it is antitrust exemption, as a cartel which otherwise would be broken apart by our department of justice or federal trade commission. its tax benefits. under the law. other kind of special treatment it receives. give it a special public position in our laws. but also a position of trust. >> this is an organization that makes $10 billion a year. taxpayers are currently losing out of hundred of millions. why should they be getting these special breaks right now, why don't you take some steps to change this and your fellow members of congress?

>> that is a course of action that certainly we ought to kid. equally important i call on the nfl to devote some of the billions of dollars in profits to the problem of domestic violence. as one member of the senate my voice will be for greater responsibility immediately. not waiting for a new law. and the ray rice beating so far really punished only partly is a call to action. >> appreciate it. thank you. off a >> we will be looking for you to keep following this senator. appreciate it. thank you for your time. >> there is more breaking from the nfl tonight. yet another domestic abuse case. this one involving a child. star minnesota running back adrian peterson has been deactivated by the vikings. after being indicted by a texas grand jury for recklessly injuring his 4-year-old son. the charges stem from peterson's physically disciplining his son with a tree branch he described

to ply as a switch. a houston television station is reporting the child had bruises and cuts on his back, buttocks, ankles, legs and scrotum. this is shaping up to be yet another big test for goodell and the nfl. an organization being tested right now more than any one would have imagined. stay tune. we'll be back right after this bara break with a controversial interview with floyd mayweather. you don't want to miss this. me, too. i can check your calendar, then traffic to help you make your mani-pedi on time. and you sound great too. well, i have two speakers for music. ♪ oh...i only have one. really? yes. and i'm sitting on it. ♪ every time you take advil liqui gelson it. you're taking the pain reliever that works faster on tough pain than extra strength tylenol. and not only faster. stronger too.

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fight fans there is a darker part of his story. arrests, citations in 2010 an incident landed him in prison. according to the police report, mayweather grabbed the mother of his three children by the hair, punched her in the head several times. and threat tunened to kill her. this is all in front of his kids who he also threatened to kill before one of them called the police. after mayweather pled to a reduced charge and spent two months in jail he wasn't ostracized. the nevada boxing commission didn't suspend him the way the nfl suspended rice. instead, mayweather has been allowed to continue to churn out pay days and this despite even more women coming forward with stories of abus e in the time since. given all this you would think mayweather would want to keep a low profile headed into the fight this weekend. expected to earn him $30 million. instead what did mayweather do.

he commented on rice telling a group of reporters, that the nfl overreacted in indefinitely suspending rice. mayweather added i think there is a lot worse things that go on in other people any household. it is just not caught on video if that's safe to say. the next day, mayweather backtracked from the comments. when i had a chance to speak to the boxer, i asked him about rice and his own brutal history. take a listen. you recently made comments on ray rice and how the nfl should have stuck to the two game punishment. you backed off the punishment. can you clarify what you really think? >> i spoke about that yesterday. i will leave that in the past. and try to focus on the future and fight saturday. >> okay, you are someone with a history of domestic violence yourself. you have even been to jail for it, why should fans root for you with this kind of history? >> everything has been allegations. nothing has been proven.

so, you know that's life. >> the incident you went to jail for the mother of your three children did show some bruises, a concussion when she went to the hospital, it was your own kids who called the police, gave them a detailed description of the abuse, there has been documentation? >> uh-huh. once again, no pictures. just hearsay and allegations. and i signed a plea-bargain. once again, not true. >> but the website, deadspin detailed seven physical assaults on five women that resulted in arrest or citation, are we supposed to believe all the women are lying including the incidents when there were witnesses like your own kids. >> everybody actually, everybody is entitled to their own opinion. when it is all said and done. only god can judge me. >> woo hae have seen, the publi wants domestic abuse in the country addressed would you kid

donating any of the $30 million that you will make this weekend to an organization that educates against abuse. >> this weekend, what i will do that millions and millions of dollars be saved for my children because my children are who i love and that's who i care about. >> yeah, the denial there, with mayweather is truly amazing. right. it gives an interesting window into the way an abuser can walk around maintaining over and over again that nothing is wrong despite hard evidence to the contrary. still got to tell you not as amazing to me as the denial of the public that supports him. i am curious how many of those who shuddered at the video of ray rice in the elevator this week are also planning on plunking down their $70 tomorrow for mayweather's pay-per-view fight. it is worth considering before you pull out your credit card. after this break, yet another scandal over racism rocked the nba this week. stick around, clippers coach, doc rivers offers us his unique perspective. >> i can make two choices.

i can live in the past. and be stuck there and with anger. or i could move forward. ♪takes my breath away

welcome back to unguarded. i'm rachel nicoles. the nba saw another owner forced to sell his team due to troubling comments on race.

this time, bruce levinson who wrote an e-mail essentially complaining the hawks had too many black fans. lovely. while we thought there was no smarter person to talk about the int intersection of basketball and race than clippers' coach doc rivers. his first extended interview since navigating through the very center of the donald sterling scandal. and his jut looutlook may surpr you. >> all right, let's bring out steve ballmer! >> we have come such a long way from april 25th when tmz first posted the audio recordings of donald sterling i you had to describe in a few adjectives what your life has been like over the fast five, six months what word would you use? >> that's a good question. >> you know, i guess uns uncertainty, confusion, clulter. because the that encompasses all

of them. >> what do you remember about the first time you did hear the initial, you called the team meeting for the next day? >> that morning it was difficult. i had to decide what to wear you. can see them normally, throw on your clippers stuff. and i am trying to decide. >> you did that. when you put them on it didn't feel right on your body. period. i decided of all the days i had to wear, today is the day that i must wear it. >> commissioner, adam silver shortly after that held the big conference. >> i am banning mr. sterling for life from any association with the clippers organization or the nba. >> he bans donaldster long from having anything to do with the team. he talks about trying to force

h him to sell. there is great positive reaction to that around the nba. but that leaves you stewarding the franchise. then all of a sudden not just the team you are in charge of as coach, but people in the front office, people who sell tickets. >> they didn't have anyone to talk to. and as upset as our players were, that was the most emotional moment i thought through the whole thing. >> you know they were upset. think about being an operator and answering the phone and some of the things they have to hear. >> you played for the clippers for a year in the ear 90s. you played for donald sterling. >> huh. >> in the years in between you came back to coach. he was sued, by baylor for racial discrimination, the and settled for the largest amount ever. you knew those things why did you feel comfortable going to work for him in the first place. >> i didn't at first. i looked at it as a crazy

challenge. man if we can turn this thing around this will be really cool. >> did you have any reservation as but working for some one that might bea bigot? >> that that time i didn't did not. i didn't think about it in those terms. there was history. there was no denying that. there was history. that was the gamble i took. that's also why it took so long. it took months, at least two for me to decide, should i or shouldn't i. >> you wrote a become on basketball toward the end of your playing career, an entire chapter on race. this is not anner to th eissue away from? >> i don't think any of us should. it's part of our life. growing of in chicago in the early '60s. it is very segregated you. didn't mix, didn't meet other groups. you weren your group. so i think it is important. >> you met your wife chris at marquette in college. smart, beautiful, talented. she also happens to be white. that caused some problems. >> that cause aid lot of problems in college.

she had her tires slit. things written on the sidewalk. >> then what happened in san antonio though? >> that was the worst. that was awful. >> we were on vacation, some one broke into our house and burned the house down. one of our dogs, two of our animals were killed in that -- in the fire. and that was awful. >> the police told you they thought that was racially motivated. >> they know it was. the one thing they were sure of. because of some of the stuff -- >> some one burned your house down? >> yeah. you know what do you do? you fight it. you live your life. my dad always said "no victims." you know i can make two choices. i can live in the past with anger, or i could move forward and get my family moving back. i knew my kids, we had how to get them normal. they never saw the house. i had it bulldozed before they could see it. i didn't want them to see that.

you don't forget. there its nothing wrong with not foe f forgetting you have to move on. >> with everything the franchise has been through. everything you have been through personally in your life. people would think the overriding emotion would be anger. instead what is your overriding emotion as you move forward? >> victory. no victims. and let's get it right. >> this is really cool. >> now that is being the bigger man. doc rivers impressive as always. >> all right, coming up. we are going to get back into the nfl. and where the league should go next on domestic violence. and we'll talk to two of ray rice's former teammates. including one who saw his own sister lose her life at the hand of an ex-boyfriend. >> i think the domestic violence goes way beyond what we are talking about. this is a nationwide thing.

welcome back. i'm rachel nichols. talking about the nfl attitude about domestic violence. as shocking as the video was for the american public. it was even more shocking for those who know rice and his wife janay. rice is not floyd mayweather. no history of abuse of any kind. in fact he was known as one of the nfl good guys. i now want to bring in two of rice's teammates. chris johnson won a super bowl with ray rice two years ago, derek mason was one of the players who mentored rice when rice came into the league. derek, the guy you know was not the guy you would be expecting to knock his wife unconscious in an elevator. how do you reconcile that? >> you can't.

a guy, myself, spent, four, five years with. and to see this on a video is shocking. >> that's what is amazing, is that people some times find it hard to believe, oh this guy i know could do that. but that is usually how this goes. i mean, chris your personal story is just heartwrenching for people who don't know. your own sister was a victim of domestic abuse. she was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend. yet you and your wife have been friend of ray and janay rice for years. what has this been like for you? >> well it was kind of a touchy feeling when i first seen the video. but i think in ray's defense, it was a good guy that did something terribly bad. that now that he is paying the consequences for. >> you stood up in the ravens any's locker room after we saw another incident of domestic violence in kansas city, a couple years ago, why did you think it was so in prnt mportan

tell players your story. >> the day my sister was shot and killed. i was trying to make sure everybody in the locker room is a close brotherhood, lick a brotherhood. at the sail time time, we get o practice, meetings, the first thing we do is grab our cell phones or try to see what is going on in our lives. instead of talking to your fellow team mates to find out what's going on at home? what's going on with the fiancee? what's going on with your mom, your wife? that's things that we men, real men need to talk about in the locker room. >> derek, do you think there need to be more formal policies inside the nfl. from what i remember, you get one talk once a year that half the players are sleeping through? >> i will not here and say the nfl is not doing anything. but in this situation, i think they need to do a little bit more. because if you look at it, there have been countless guys that have been arrested for domestic violence in the last, you know, four, five, six years.

the policies they have not gotten strict. hopefully after this situation, and goodell, you know, whatever you say about him, he did take a stance on it. albeit it was after the fact. with implementing another policy. six games for the first offense. you know, suspension, year long suspension for the second offense. i think it should have been the first offense should be year long suspension. if it happens again you are out of the league. >> certainly going to have a lot of eyes on them to seep where they go from here. thank you for the insider perspective on the locker room on ray rice. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> that e ate for -- that's it tonight. of course, we will see you right back here next friday night on "unguarded" where the end of the game is just the start of the story. good night.