It took a lot – but finally the right decision was made in the Ray Rice case. Despite a ludicrously short two-game suspension after the first video of Rice dragging his then fiancée out of an elevator, the video of the actual knockout punch (which I refuse to watch – but has only been described as horrific) was the knockout blow to Rice’s Ravens and possibly NFL career.
It’s actually incredible that an investigation that was butchered in so many ways ended up with a justified result. Not to drudge up old news, but the fact that Rice’s fiancée was at the hearing with Commissioner Goodell is a joke. How can she possibly be expected to give an accurate account of what happened? Of course her judgment and candidness is clouded by the potential for a suspension, not to mention the looming threat of Rice’s wrath.
If the Ravens saw this video before today and did nothing - shame on them. But we likely will never know for sure what the video release timeline looked like for all parties (law enforcement, NFL, Ravens). Maybe it is naïve to think that the NFL and/or the Ravens didn’t have the video until today. Casinos are loaded with cameras (including every elevator), so it existed from the start – but that could have been locked away in a vault somewhere. We may never actually know the extent or existence of a cover up.
The way to look at it now, in my opinion, is it’s about time. You want to make a stand against violence against women? Rice should be thrown out of the league permanently. An indefinite suspension is a nice start, but a lifetime ban would be more appropriate and send a final message to all players. A person working a normal job would never keep their job in this spot - the fame and big business of the NFL made this situation that much worse. Enough about how it was a one-time mistake. No one is buying that, or should, for a minute. It’s been written about, it’s been talked about, and finally the last piece of video evidence has sealed the deal – the Ravens did the right thing - because they had to.
