Ray Rice Deserves His NFL Career To Be Over & To Be In Jail

Once upon a time, I liked Ray Rice.

Really, I did.

I mean, what was not to like? Here was not only a great running back, but he was from Rutgers, my alma mater! He had a dynamic way of playing, and he was going to represent Rutgers well with a promising NFL career.

Then, he got into the NFL, for a team that was not all that far away from Rutgers campus. He played for the Baltimore Ravens, a perennial playoff team, and legitimate Super Bowl contender.

Now, the Ravens are not my favorite team or anything, but I like them, and went to see them a few times, here and there. There was one point when I had very close seats, right above the tunnel. Someone behind me yelled "Rice! You suck!" just as he was running into the tunnel for halftime of a preseason game, and Rice looked right at me, and threw his glove at my face (honestly!). I didn't even manage to get the glove, but thought it cool on some level, nonetheless. Given what he had proven to be, I think about that incident a little bit differently now.

Yes, I always liked Rice, and even considered getting his jersey (although I never did). When the Ravens went to the Super Bowl, I was pulling not just for the Ravens in general, but Rice in particular.

Go Rutgers!

That all changed this past offseason, when he was caught on tape dragging his unconscious wife off of a hotel elevator. It was disgusting.

Then, he held a press conference, and apologized to everyone - except his wife. He held another press conference to remedy that apparently minor oversight.

Still, the NFL, and Roger Goodell, suspended him for all of two games. Knocking out your soon to be wife is apparently not too big of a deal.

The NFL received a lot of criticism for that, and deservedly so.

Then, today, I was driving home, with my mind on other things (believe me, my thoughts were definitely not on that), when I heard that the Ravens had cancelled his contract, and the NFL had made Rice's suspension indefinite.

Why? Because of a new video that had come out, that clearly showed Rice punching his then fiancé, now wife, hard enough to knock her out.

Then, he dragged her out of the elevator, and we see the more familiar videotape.

And you know what? Now, I actually wish that it had been me who said that Rice sucks. No, I'm not that kind of a guy who gets drunk and yells out obscenities and hurls abuses when I go to public events, especially games. Far from it, in fact. Such behavior disgusts me.

But even more disgusting is a man who thinks it is okay to knock a woman out.

Ray Rice is a professional athlete, who makes tons of money and lives a privileged life because of what he can do with his body. He is probably naturally strong, but that is obviously taken quite a few steps farther than normal, because he has to work out regularly in order to be in shape for the football field. He obviously has a lot of strength, so this incident surely was not one about some insecure guy trying to prove how tough he is.

Which, in some ways, makes it all the more despicable. It's almost like Rice knocked his wife out casually, as if it really did not matter. She was in his face (at least, it looked that way), and so, he just punched her in her face, hard enough to knock her out cold.

Then, of course, he botched his apology.

And today, he got what was coming to him.

The Ravens essentially fired him. The NFL, seeing the new video, extended his suspension indefinitely.

And I applaud the Ravens for what they did, simply getting rid of a star player because of his conduct. It is what I wish the Steelers had done some years ago. I still have not regained the respect that I lost for that franchise for not letting "Big Ben", the egotistical, megalomaniac football hero rapist. Not only did they not cut him loose, but they actively labored, successfully, to reduce his six-game suspension to four games. Now, I pull for whoever is playing against the Steelers, generally speaking.

Roger Goodell talked the talk of getting tough on misbehavior in the league. But Michael Vick is playing in the league, despite his high profile misbehavior. "Big Ben" received a four-game suspension for his second case of rape. And Ray Rice received a two-game suspension for punching his fiancée out. Of those guys, only one of them (Vick) actually had to do jail time. As soon as he was out, he was back to playing in the league. Once he showed he still had physical gifts, he received a salary of over $100 million. Those two other guys have made a killing with their salary, as well.Plus, there are countless other examples of severe misbehavior by high profile athletes in the NFL (and no shortage of them in other sports leagues, as well).

To his credit (I guess), Goodell admitted that he got it wrong with the "penalty" of a two game suspension. Today, the league extended that to an indefinite suspension. Of course, they also knew that the video was about to be released to the entire world, and viewed by anybody who wanted to watch it. It looked bad, and would make the NFL look bad. So, on the very day that the video was released, this action was taken by the NFL.

I will applaud the Baltimore Ravens for doing what the Steelers should have done years ago with "Big Ben". But then again, what choice did they have, really? Once they knew the video was going to be released, it would have been very bad publicity indeed for them to stay with Rice on their roster. The same can be said with the NFL. Frankly, I don't think either Rice now, nor Roethlisberger before, should ever have played football again. The fact that "Big Ben" still is seems to suggest that the NFL does not view rape (and more than one instance of it) as all that serious. And I'm surprised that the race issue has not been brought up regarding the apparent hypocrisy and double standard. Because Rice is out, but Roethlisberger is still the QB at Pittsburgh, and I just heard former QB Ron Jaworski talking admiringly of "Big Ben", and comparing him to a solid oak. Yes, the league, and it's pundits, seems to have a short term memory for massive misconduct. Unless, of course, it is thrown in their face. Again, "Big Ben" only was gone for four games, because multiple counts of rape, whether or not it was settled out of court, is not really that big of a deal according to the league, apparently.

Evidently, it felt the same way about a star player knocking out his fiancée in a public elevator. Such conduct is worthy of a mere suspension of a couple of games, literally.

Until, that is, Roger Goodell received a hell of a lot of criticism. And when that new video was released yesterday, and he and the league realized that this was going to look really, really bad, they took this opportunity to finally extend the penalty, even though they knew that Rice had knocked out his woman. I guess video footage just makes for even worse press on an issue that the NFL had already received bad press.

Many NFL players have responded as well London Fletcher wants an investigation as to when Roger Goodell first watched the video, suggesting that he believes Goodell saw the newly released video earlier than today's public release. A couple of members of the Denver Broncos responded as well, with Terrance Knightley suggesting that Rice should be banned for life from the NFL, and Chris Harris saying that "The NFL should have zero tolerance for domestic violence. There is never a reason for any man to be violent towards any woman."

Chris Mortensen reminded everyone that Rice was set to have his suspension ended this coming Friday, just three days from now:

NFL has now suspended Ray Rice indefinitely based on "new video evidence ." He was set to come off suspension Friday.

Former great 49ers cornerback Eric Wright brought up a very good point in a series of tweets:

But what if that video never came out to the general public tho?! Pls believe that can't be the first time the NFL or the Ravens saw it! Smh

Did we NOT already know that that was exactly what happened? I'm confused *scratches head*

The initial reports came out, "Ray Rice knocks wife out cold, tries to pick her up, blah blah blah".. Okay.. 2game suspension..

Now the vid comes out and it's like "Oh wait... He REALLY knocked his wife out cold and drug her out an elevator".. Okay.. Release him

The former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe made a similar point:

Let's be clear. The Ravens releasing Ray Rice is because people are upset that the behavior was made this public. They had no issue before.

He also said:

Looks like the Ravens' strategy of "MOVE ALONG FOLKS, RAY RICE'S WIFE IS SORRY SHE GOT BEATEN" might not have been the best choice

LeCharles Bentley said:


And there's nothing she could have said to deserve THAT. Not a damb thing... That was a planned attack. Spit on her too.. Bruh... 😑#Coward

And Lynn Zinser exposed the hypocrisy by the Ravens even more succinctly:

Ravens, translated: "We were totally OK with Ray Rice clobbering his wife until you all watched it on video."

Yes, good point. What if the incident had not come out on video tape? Would Rice be looking forward to suiting up and playing in a couple of weeks?

Maybe we should ask that, and get this kind of publicity for it, the next time an NFL player - or any high profile athlete - is charged for domestic abuse like this.





These are the articles that I used in writing this particular blog entry, and which I got the quotes from:


NFL players and broadcasters react to Ray Rice being cut by the Ravens and suspended by the NFL by Marissa Payne of The Washington Post, September 8, 2014:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/09/08/nfl-players-and-broadcasters-react-to-ray-rice-being-cut-by-the-ravens-and-suspended-by-the-nfl/



Current and former NFL players react to Ray Rice video by Yahoo Sports Staff, Shutdown Corner, September 8, 2014:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/current-and-former-nfl-players-react-to-ray-rice-video-155930287.html;_ylt=AwrBT8h.oA5UlMYAd4lXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzMzc4Z2hxBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1NNRTY1NV8x




Social media reaction to release of Ray Rice from Baltimore by WHIO (Dayton), September 8, 2014:

http://www.whio.com/news/news/social-media-reaction-video-showing-nfl-player-ray/nhH9n/




Broncos player wants Ray Rice thrown out of the NFL by James Dator, September 8, 2014:

http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/9/8/6121697/terrance-knighton-tweets-nfl-ray-rice-video



Broncos react to Ray Rice video by Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com, September 8, 2014:

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/139427/broncos-react-to-ray-rice-video




Finally, I highly recommend reading this article, which talks about how women, too often, are blamed for incidents where they are victimized. It is an eye opener, on many levels! It illustrates just how persuasive and persistent blaming women in such cases tends to be, and shows how many high-profile athletes are involved in cases of domestic abuse. They include: Floyd Mayweather. He's been convicted of domestic violence (and recently accused again of troubling behavior) and there will be plenty of cheers for him this weekend. There were plenty of cheers for San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Ray McDonald when he played against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday despite being arrested for allegedly abusing his pregnant girlfriend. And there were plenty of cheers on Sunday for Carolina Panthers defensive tackle Greg Hardy, who was convicted this summer for assaulting his girlfriend.

Culture of blaming the victim is root cause of failure for NFL, Ravens in Ray Rice case by Eric Adelson of Yahoo Sports, September 8, 2014:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/culture-of-blaming-the-victim-is-root-cause-of-failure-for-nfl--ravens-in-ray-rice-case-220237076.html