I agree with you totally. And the double jeopardy thing was appealed and Rice won. He has simply been released by Baltimore.
The NFL should not be the social conscience of America. Not at all. He’ll be back. Lots of teams could use him. After March 1st, watch what happens.
There was no double jeopardy, there’s nothing wrong with the team and the league suspending a guy. Falcons and the NFL did the exact same thing with Michael Vick. What he appealed was that the suspension had no end date, the judge reinstated him making him eligible to the league again, which is what Goodell wanted. After the outcry from the 2 game suspension Goodell didn’t want to be the one to let Ray back in the league, and he wasn’t, and I’m sure Goodell was extra happy that the reinstating judge was a woman.
They aren’t the social conscience, but bad publicity is bad business. They don’t really care what happens so long as their players don’t land on TMZ.