Baltimore Ravens Release Ray Rice

To be fair to the NFL and Goodell, he openly said the initial suspension was too short some time ago and he and the league established a much harsher standard for future incidents: http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/da...e-as-nfl-changes-policy-on-domestic-abuse.ece

NFL players will be subject to a six-week suspension for a first domestic violence offense and banishment from the league for a second under a new policy outlined by Commissioner Roger Goodell.

In a letter and memo sent to all 32 teams owners Thursday, and obtained by The Associated Press, Goodell says he “didn’t get it right” in giving Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice a two-game suspension for allegedly hitting the woman who is now his wife.

Click to expand...

I think that since almost all domestic violence happens in private, that video was incredibly shocking to most people, including presumably the NFL bosses. The aftermath video was grim, but seeing the knockout punch forced firsthand knowledge, not logical reconstruction in the mind.

I hope his wife is okay. That must be incredibly uncomfortable to have everyone see that. In fact, I wonder if she'd seen the elevator interior footage herself.

People get knocked unconscious in movies and books all the time, but in life, anything more than a few seconds is quite serious. That was a brutal hit.

I saw a replay of the press conference with Rice and his wife. Just about two minutes of it. Ray was doing all the talking, while his wife stared very intently at the microphone in front of her. Silent.

Two minutes isn't time to truly draw a fair conclusion, I admit. However, I can't shake how damning that looked to me.

This article pretty much sums it up:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/ravens-lauded-for-brave-decision-to-cut-ray-rice-4,36876

Yes, Goodell did all that.

A couple of possibilities based on things I read or heard over at the ESPN website that may have changed the situation after the video surfaced.

1) The video may show things that contradict Rice what told the Ravens and the NFL when they investigated initially. This is based on some comments that Rice may have told teammates his fiance was the aggressor in the incident. If true, he probably told the Ravens and the NFL that as well.

2) The suspension may have become "indefinite" because the Ravens acted first by cutting him. Which likely means that it would not actually start until another team signs him, if it does.

On the other hand, the Ravens and the NFL may have just decided that they needed to act for PR purposes, given the way they botched it the first time around.

robjvargas said:

I saw a replay of the press conference with Rice and his wife. Just about two minutes of it. Ray was doing all the talking, while his wife stared very intently at the microphone in front of her. Silent.

Two minutes isn't time to truly draw a fair conclusion, I admit. However, I can't shake how damning that looked to me.

Click to expand...

I can't shake the feeling that she may end up dead in another month or two if she doesn't leave now. A man who clearly already has anger issues and isn't concerned with beating unconscious a woman he "loves" just lost his entire career over her. I can only imagine the kind of rage that's going to inspire.

The change of heart comes because in his initial statement and testimony, Rice admitted to "lightly slapping" his wife, who then collapsed in a drunken stupor.

The release of this video shows that he quite obviously lied to both the NFL investigation and the Ravens organization.

ShaunHorton said:

I can't shake the feeling that she may end up dead in another month or two if she doesn't leave now. A man who clearly already has anger issues and isn't concerned with beating unconscious a woman he "loves" just lost his entire career over her. I can only imagine the kind of rage that's going to inspire.

Click to expand...

I'm aghast by the video. It's clear to me that something was going on. An argument of some kind. Ray Rice's violence, though, comes out of nowhere.

There's only one reason she's apologizing. She was told to.

I can't bring myself to watch the video. Just reading about it makes me want to vomit. I hope she gets out and gets safe.

Prozyan said:

The change of heart comes because in his initial statement and testimony, Rice admitted to "lightly slapping" his wife, who then collapsed in a drunken stupor.

The release of this video shows that he quite obviously lied to both the NFL investigation and the Ravens organization.

Click to expand...

Yeah, this. He lied about what happened and I doubt she even has full memory of the event to contradict him to his bosses.

I so wanted to believe in Rice and believe that was just a stupid little, drunken episode between two people. Since coming to Baltimore, he seemed to do everything right publicly. He was the model player. The type of guy most owners would be thrilled to have. And then he turns out to be a scumbag.

It's sad that the only reason Rice lost his job was so that the NFL and the Ravens could save face.

I think it's clear how this will all play out. Rice will go to 'rehab,' give a sob story to Oprah or Anderson Cooper, give another press conference with his wife where they hold hands, and another team will pick him up next year. Like nothing ever happened.

robjvargas said:

I'm aghast by the video. It's clear to me that something was going on. An argument of some kind. Ray Rice's violence, though, comes out of nowhere.

There's only one reason she's apologizing. She was told to.

Click to expand...

Am I misinterpreing something? The video they showed on our news tonight shows her hitting him on the way to the elevator, and again in the elevator. He hits her back. She falls and hits her head on the hand rail.

Is there another video? Or am I missing something?

This is not an excuse for him hitting her. There is no excuse for hitting someone. But it did not look like it came out of nowhere, either.

well, as a running back, his hands are important. it was negligent of her to thrust her face into his fist like that.

zerosystem said:

It's sad that the only reason Rice lost his job was so that the NFL and the Ravens could save face.

I think it's clear how this will all play out. Rice will go to 'rehab,' give a sob story to Oprah or Anderson Cooper, give another press conference with his wife where they hold hands, and another team will pick him up next year. Like nothing ever happened.

Click to expand...

I don't think so. I think he's done.

From what I'm reading, running backs are considered more expendable now: they wear out faster. Teams like, say, Denver appear to make running backs look good with strong offensive lines and dangerous passing games.

Even if he's eventually forgiven, he'll be older and slower by then.

He might be a talented back, but there's more where he came from.

He also had a bad year last year, and appeared to be on his way down. So yeah, I think he's done, too. Any team that does pick him up is a team that's desperate.

Thirty years ago, when Al Davis was owner and in charge of the Oakland Raiders, he'd have picked up Ray Rice in two-thirds of a heartbeat.

Now? I'm not so sure anybody is going to go after Ray Rice all that soon. NFL running backs, even pretty good ones, have an average career life of about five years. It's a brutal position, and either acute injuries, or just wear-and-tear, don't take long to make a running back a journeyman backup, or just not attractive enough to get anybody interested. New young ones emerge out of college at every draft.

And the current commissioner, Roger Goodell, has given pretty potent signals that he, as the leagues' chief representative, isn't putting up with a whole lot of this kind of bullshit. It's more than slightly possible that Ray Rice never steps foot in uniform on an NFL field again.

caw

blacbird said:

And the current commissioner, Roger Goodell, has given pretty potent signals that he, as the leagues' chief representative, isn't putting up with a whole lot of this kind of bullshit.

Click to expand...

At least not if it's on record.

blacbird said:

Thirty years ago, when Al Davis was owner and in charge of the Oakland Raiders, he'd have picked up Ray Rice in two-thirds of a heartbeat.

Click to expand...

only because he was trying to improve the team's reputation.

William Haskins said:

only because he was trying to improve the team's reputation.

Click to expand...

You besmirch the reputation of several of the Oakland Raider greats, now, alas, departed from the mortal plain, such as Jack Tatum and Ben Davidson and Lyle Alzedo.

caw

the raiders have been my team since the days of kenny stabler.

blacbird said:

Thirty years ago, when Al Davis was owner and in charge of the Oakland Raiders, he'd have picked up Ray Rice in two-thirds of a heartbeat.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but Al never had a heartbeat because he never had a heart.

robeiae said:

To be fair to the NFL and Goodell, he openly said the initial suspension was too short some time ago and he and the league established a much harsher standard for future incidents

Click to expand...

Fair?

Why the hell does anyone have to be "fair" to the NFL?

This is a billion dollar business that suspends a player for the entire seasn for smoking marijuana while giving another TWO GAMES for knocking out and dragging an unconscious woman off of an elevator and dumping her on the floor like a sack of potatoes.

This is a league that misled, deceived and lied to the players of the damage concussions were doing to them and then tried to nickel-and-dime them in a lawsuit with a settlement so chintzy even a federal judge threw a penalty flag on it.

The NFL doesn't give a damn about women. Why would they? There are active players in the league whom have killed people, who have been convicted of drunk driving, gang bangers, drug addicts and other law breakers and given them chance after chance to play in the league. If Aaron Hernandez wasn't behind bars under suspicion of murdering at least two people, he'd probably still be catching passes from Tom Brady on Sunday afternoons.

To be a fan of NFL football means you gotta take a lot of bad with the good and sometimes there's a helluva lotta bad. I should know. I'm a San Francisco 49ers fan.

What's the lesson here? Beat a woman's ass and you get a couple of weeks off. Fail a drug test and you're done for the year. Some lesson.

Roger Goodell's much ballyhooed new policy only came to pass after the NFL caught hell from the public and press for the sloppy wet kiss Rice received. The league doesn't give a damn what the players do to their wives, girlfriends and significant others as long as it doesn't blowback on their precious, carefully calculated image.

Goodell and the Baltimore Ravens are enablers of violence against women. Which is kind of funny when you consider how in Goodell's NFL the big killshot hard hit has nearly been flagged, penalized, regulated and legislated out of existence.

The NFL hasn't gotten around to Atlantic City elevators.

FUCK being "fair" to these soulless corporate cretins.