My Two Cents

If you live anywhere near Baltimore, or follow sports or pretty much, have used a computer in the last 12 hours, chances are you've read or heard about the Ray Rice scandal.  (Not only is RayRice trending on twitter, but Goodell and BaltimoreRavens are too) It's a big deal here in Baltimore, and has turned into a national story (some might say international as Amanda Abbingdon insulted him on Twitter just a few minutes ago), due to the nastiness of the whole thing.

A few months ago, Ray Rice was a well-respected Running Back for the Baltimore Ravens. In the span of about 5 minutes last May that all changed.  In a casino in New Jersey, he was caught on film punching his now wife so hard she was knocked unconscious.  The sheer brutality of the hit was jarring to say the least.  In the days that followed, he apologized (badly), she apologized for her role (why exactly did she need to do that and why did the Ravens share that information?) the couple was married and he was brought up on charges. A few weeks later he was sent to anger management, paid a fine and the charges were all but forgotten (the arrest stays on his record but he was never really sentenced).  

Then came the truly ugly part, he was fined by the NFL and punished. He was forced to sit out 2 games.  A lousy 2 games.  For reference sake, a player that was recently found smoking pot, was suspended for the entire 2014-2015 season.  Yes, that's how the NFL feels about domestic violence.  That brings us to today when TMZ (from sleazy stalker-azzi to moral compass in no time flat) released the video of the punch.  Up until this time, we only saw Ray drag her unconscious body out of the elevator.  Because that wasn't suspect enough. Apparently the powers that be really needed the evidence of the hit to do something about it. In other words, the public outcry was just a little too loud to ignore this time around.

Within 6 hours of the tape's release Rice had been cut from the Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the NFL.  That's all well and good, but it's too little too late for a lot of people, myself included.  If that tape hadn't been released, the truth is Ray Rice would have been playing on September 21.  Why did it take a public outcry for the NFL and the Ravens organization to take a stand on domestic violence?  

As a former huge fan of his, I'd like to believe it was the first and last time, Rice had ever hit or will ever hit his girlfriend.  And if this was an isolated incident and he never hurts another person again, I'll be overjoyed.  But even if that's the case, he deserves the punishment he's finally received.  Now, I only hope the team and the NFL can start to get past it and build some momentum on the subject of domestic violence.  It's a multi-billion dollar industry - surely they can spare a few dollars to show the rest of the players they're walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.