Ray Rice being suspended indefinitely on Monday afternoon was a ridiculous decision by the NFL.
Before overreacting to that first statement and questioning my morals, please continue reading. By no means am I condoning what Ray Rice did, or any sort of domestic violence for that matter. It is a terrible crime and anyone who is the aggressor in a situation like that deserves to be punished accordingly.
So why do I think this was a terrible decision? The NFL, mainly Roger Goodell, is making itself look like the kid in the group of friends who is indecisive and changes its mind every time someone opposes their viewpoint.
This is how I envision the conversation went down:
Goodell: “So we know this guy beat his wife — what do you guys think, two-game suspension? Sounds fair to me, but we should suspend Wes Welker four games for his despicable antics.”
Twitter: “So you can beat your wife, but not smoke weed? Only two games? This guy should be in jail, why the short suspension?”
*Video comes out*
Goodell: “I didn’t think he did that! Let’s suspend him.”
First off, yes, the video was brutal, and watching it made me cringe. What Rice did to his fiancée is inexcusable, and he deserves his punishment. But what did Goodell and Co. think he did? Did they think Rice gave his fiancée a light push or something?
If someone is being arrested for domestic violence, I imagine almost exactly what happened in the leaked video. Given, Goodell has recently been on the record saying he made a mistake and that he hopes not to make the same mistake in the future, but the fact that the mistake was made in the first place is absurd.
On top of that, if I was Ray Rice, I’d be pissed. I don’t want anyone to confuse this next paragraph with sympathy for Rice, because I have none for him. He deserves all the public scrutiny and punishments he receives, but did Rice not cooperate? Nothing changed from the moment he told his story to the time the video was released, except for the fact that people didn’t think it was as bad as the video makes it seem — which is dumb, by the way.
As far as I know, both the Ravens and the NFL had a pretty accurate description of what happened before the video came out. Both programs have been on the record saying it was the video that ultimately made the decisions of termination and suspension, which is utterly stupid.
Rice should have been let go once he pleaded guilty to the crime. This whole situation extends beyond sports. It is sickening to think some who commit this crime may receive a more lenient punishment because there was no video evidence of their crime. It’s like the crime never happened until there was tangible video evidence available.
I mean, I don’t think he would ever say this, but it’s almost as if Goodell said, “Pics, or it didn’t happen.”
In the end, the result is correct. The former Ravens running back got his contract terminated and is suspended indefinitely by the NFL. So congratulations to the Ravens organization and the NFL, you made the right decision — just a few months too late.
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@GriffDoug