Ray Rice Wasn’t Fired For Domestic Violence
If a Punch Is Thrown Off Camera, Did It Hit?
This morning, TMZ released a horrific video clip of now-former-Baltimore Raven Ray Rice punching his then-fianceé Janay unconscious. I’m not linking to it, nor am I watching it. I’ve seen and read enough of my peers’ reactions to know I don’t need to. Even though this afternoon saw Rice’s contract terminated, I doubt this will change anything.
Thursday night, while the Ravens are playing The Pittsburgh Steelers, Ray Rice was to be nowhere in sight, finishing a two game suspension handed to him back in July. A suspension handed down only after after video footage surfaced of Rice dragging an unconscious post-punch Janay out of the elevator and into a hotel lobby, this past February.
It took that footage reaching the public, for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to do anything.
The phrase “the least you can do,” was the only expletive-free phrase that came to mind when hearing that Rice was only going to be suspended two games.
Two games. Not even the New York Knicks, who spent my adolescence teaching me about sports sadness, can send me into the rage that Roger Goodell and his two games sent me that day.
Mike Schur (Ken Tremendous on twitter), the show runner of Parks and Recreation customized an excellent jersey for Rice, to commemorate this show of no-judgement from Goodell, but as he said, “if only it wouldn’t give the league money.”
Two games is nothing. The most frequent suspension is twice that, four games, for substance abuse.
This slap-on-the-wrist was decried by anybody with a pulse as pathetic. What’s unnerving is that it was done with clear and full knowledge of what the public has only today seen. On July 29, SI’s Peter King, a stooge for Goodell I’d normally be above linking to, previously reported:
There is one other thing I did not write or refer to, and that is the other videotape the NFL and some Ravens officials have seen, from the security camera inside the elevator at the time of the physical altercation between Rice and his fiancée.
This afternoon, the Ravens announced that they are terminating Ray Rice’s contract.
Thanks to King, we know the Ravens only fired Rice because the public saw that video.
No matter what NFL players do behind the scenes, as long as it doesn’t make it to YouTube, the players slide. Just look at the quarterback that Rice’s Ravens are playing on Thursday: Ben Roethlisberger. Repeatedly accused of sexual assault, Roethlisberger, who settled those accusations out of court, stil plays on the gridiron today.
His actions weren’t captured on video, but the judging from the fact that he didn’t have the confidence in his innocence to let the court decide, he’s probably very thankful his bar bathroom incidents weren’t captured on film.
That’s all this was about with Ray Rice, calming down the immediate demands for action from the media. Look at how the Ravens twitter account live-blogged the press event where the Rices spun the story to the public, and Janay was pushed and compelled to apologize.
That’s the spin that the Ravens and the NFL wanted to end this story on. Beaten wife was responsible for NFL running back delivering knockout punch.
Since the public was able to see the punch was on video, with no way to avoid the malice with which it was delivered, there was no other choice.
The NFL, by its own actions, continues to stand for Not For Ladies. Up until a heinous act goes viral and forces action, women don’t matter to the NFL, outside of cheerleaders or Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Why? That’s how much the NFL has a stranglehold on America. Will Leitch ended his morning piece on Ray Rice with the following statement. An admission that the NFL has this grip on the public, no matter what.
Yeah, well, that’s a nice sentiment. But if you really think anyone — even those so angry this morning, especially those so angry this morning— is going to stop watching the NFL because of this, because of anything involving the real world … well, check back with me in a month. Because I bet you are still watching. I bet we all are.
Ray Rice’s sin wasn’t beating his wife, it was being caught on camera.
Roger Goodell believes that the NFL has no moral obligations, until something starts to chip away at his bottom line. The league and its fans deserve better.
