Roger Goodell becoming an ex-Commissioner might be the only good thing to come out of this episode.
BLUF - I am not impressed with the “life-long” suspension.
Wasn’t Mike Vick supposed to suspended indefinitely in 2007 after the dog fighting charges surfaced? Didn’t Vick serve 18 months in a Federal Prison? Wasn’t he reinstated and picked up by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009?
Guess “life-long” and “indefinite” mean different things for you and me and football stars.
Everybody is seeing what they want to see in this video.
It is very jerky. You can not see motion. You can not hear any audio.
It could well be that Rice barely touched his wife, and merely knocked her down when she was already falling-down drunk.
Or it could be that he smacked her like the Russian Drago hitting Rocky in Rocky IV.
But the characterization that he “knocked her out cold” is manifestly false. A minute after she fell, she was sitting on the floor and moving under her own power.
There is little in that video that cannot be attributed to drunkenness, which is something they both admitted to.
BECAUSE WE SAW IT........
The NFL is BIG BROTHER on steroids. No question it knew every detail of this assault.
He should have had her fight against some pit bulls and then hang her and shoot her after she lost.
Upon hearing her state Ray has never hit her, and her assurance that it was an accident, and they are both in counseling, and blah-blah-blah. It was simple to resolve if you were Roger Goodell. Take leniency and give him only two games suspension, CONDITIONED UPON THE TAPE CORRABORATING THEIR STORY!!!. "Ray, have your lawyers send us the tape. As soon as we see it, we'll announce only 2 games. If we don't get the tape, you are suspended indefinitely, until we finish our investigation (which will not be concluded until we get a copy of the tape)."
End of story
They saw the video when the gave him the two game suspension. When the video hit the internet the NFL banned him and he got cut from the Ravens.
So, ya know...
I think football in this country is in serious trouble. The growing thugishnes is a threat to the NFL, but the concussion issue, which isn’t going away, is, I think, even a greater danger. If this isn’t addressed in a serious way parents will stop allowing their children to play high school football. And who will be in the NFL in ten years if this happens?
The woman married him AFTER the incident, and today she is defending him.
So, one could ask: Who are we to judge their chosen life-style?
___________________________________________________________
Also, will he lose his Under Armour endorsement, or will they turn this in whole thing in to a ‘positive’ by developing a new line of facial protection products for women and hiring him and his wife to tout it?
“When Ray punches ME in my face, I know I can rely on Under Armor “In Your Face” nose and cheek pads...”
“Yes, I do pack quite a wallop both on and OFF the field, don’t I, baby?”
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
NFL: Homos, thugs and other assorted miscreants.
Because we saw it. They knew, but the NFL:Negros, Felons, and Liberals, wanted to protect the image of the NFL.