The internet has been on fire with the developing story of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. Graphic video surfaced on TMZ from an Atlantic City hotel in February, showing Rice punching his fiancee and then dragging her unconscious body out of the elevator. Initial video only showed the aftermath and got Rice a two-game suspension, but when the full video surfaced, Rice was cut by the Ravens and suspended from the NFL:
The new video of the incident reignited criticism of Goodell and the league’s handling of domestic violence. The commissioner was portrayed as out of touch on the issue, and it came as he was grappling with other explosive issues, including bullying in the locker room, players driving drunk and carrying weapons, and a drug and steroids policy that some considered outdated. [Commissioner Roger] Goodell, who has wide discretion to penalize players for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, was criticized for giving Rice only a two-game suspension. The N.F.L. received hundreds of phone calls in protest, and petitions with tens of thousands of signatures were collected.
Goodell has now stated that future policy now dominates that all NFL players or employees are suspended for six games for a first offense of domestic violence. Just imagine if there wasn’t such a thing as public outcry.
Team Blackness also discussed media accountability, why the NFL is the worst, and the impact of social media.
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Penus
I agree with beating the “media accountability” drum in this case. Institutions circled the wagons around Rice and hung Jenay Palmer out to dry. Where the fuck were Maureen Dowd and Rachel Maddow and Gail Collins and Charles Blow on this? (To say nothing of Peter King and the rest of the NFL media that sold the company line for six months, but I don’t look to them for any kind of real commentary.) Where was their anger in February when the Ravens began their textbook enabling of a guy who laid his fiancee out?
The company line of one of the most respected franchises in the NFL, as determined by C-suite execs, was basically “She was asking for it.” What kind of a bubble do you have to live in in America in 2014 to get your best and brightest together and, by consensus, decide on that strategy? And more importantly, why did they get away with it for so long?
Betty Cracker
@Penus: Plenty of people were outraged at the two-game suspension (including Maddow, IIRC), which is why Goodell was forced to admit he fucked up and come up with a different protocol for handling domestic violence before the video came out yesterday. The video just inconveniently (from the NFL’s perspective) underscored just how gigantic a fuck-up it was.
Svensker
The only thing that scares me is how much she is going to get beat up for having “caused” him to lose his job. Hope he’s been taking anger management classes and she is ready to protect herself and/or get out quick.
So awful for her. But I’m also really sad that a good looking, smart, very talented kid (to me, he’s a kid) grew up without learning how to control himself. Such a damned waste.
Groucho48
It’s amazing how many folks are wondering aloud why the woman wasn’t charged with anything, as she threw the first punch. Or, saying since she is willing to forgive him, so should the NFL and the rest of us. Or, various other similar themes. Most, but not all, are right wingers, of course, but, there are more lefties taking like that than I would have thought.
Eljai
@Groucho48: I work in an office in a part of the country considered to be a liberal bastion and just this morning out of the mouth of a co-worker who should definitely know better, I heard “did she do anything to provoke him?” I did at least get the co-worker to admit that what Rice did was wrong. period. I’m so depressed right now. We need some serious sensitivity training for the whole damn country.
Rasputin's Evil Twin
If he hit another player, coach, or ref on the field like that, he’d be ejected from the game, suspended, fined, etc. If he hit someone on the street, he’d be arrested. But until yesterday the NFL was cool with him slamming a woman like that, even after seeing the tape?
“Sport does not develop character; it merely reveals it” -G.B. Shaw.
rikyrah
I hope she gets out before he kills her. Scared for her, even though I’m sure she can’t see a way out right now.
Someguy
@Groucho48: It’s amazing how many folks are wondering aloud why the woman wasn’t charged with anything, as she threw the first punch.
I read that they are both in a domestic violence pre-trial diversion program, which the prosecutor says is consistent with how his office treats first time offenders. I think that’s BS and part cover-up and she’s getting railroaded to cover up for the NFL. She may have started it and come at him, but so what. A man is never right to punch a woman, ever. Dude ought to go to prison for a decade or so, think it over and try to get his mind right.
BTW, the Ravens aren’t going to miss Rice much, but they damn sure miss ol’ Ray Lewis. What a stud that guy was, just laid out the opposition. Dude was a killer, man, A killer.
hilts
@Penus:
Peter King:
“Earlier this summer a source I trusted told me he assumed the NFL had seen the damaging video that was released by TMZ on Monday morning of Rice slugging his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, in an Atlantic City elevator. The source said league officials had to have seen it. This source has been impeccable, and I believed the information. So I wrote that the league had seen the tape. I should have called the NFL for a comment, a lapse in reporting on my part. The league says it has not seen the tape, and I cannot refute that with certainty. No one from the league has ever knocked down my report to me, and so I was surprised to see the claim today that league officials have not seen the tape. I hope when this story is fully vetted, we all get the truth and nothing but the truth.”
http://deadspin.com/peter-king-issues-statement-on-his-ray-rice-reporting-1632044670
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Yes. As annoying as the “what did she do to provoke him” speculation is, the “she must be an idiot” line of discussion is probably just as damaging in its way. I’ve gone there myself (not in the context of the Rice situation but with someone I’m acquainted with in real life whose choices I find baffling and inexplicable). But it’s important to keep in mind that it’s a complicated issue. Like you, I hope she finds the strength to get the hell out.
Paul in KY
Freshman Oklahoma football player suspended for year & will probably get some kind of sentence for laying out a woman who slapped him during an altercation over comments he had allegedly made about her friend. 1st time encounter between the two.
His punch broke several bones in her face.
Scamp Dog
@Paul in KY: I suppose she really shouldn’t have slapped him, but why can’t a football player who can take the kind of hits dealt out at a big-time football program respond with something less (a lot less!) than a full punch? Laugh it off, grab her arm if she winds up for a second one, but don’t act like your life and safety are at stake. Man up, dude!
WaterGirl
@hilts: If the NFL hadn’t seen the tape it’s because they didn’t want to see the tape.
billB
No real man hits a woman, hit the wall if you gotta hit something. Women can piss off the most sane man, just don’t let it get under your skin, My Rule – just walk away and don’t look back. The world is full of wonderful women that won’t make you crazy.
Groucho48
Kind of funny. I’m on another forum, where the right wingers love posting things about teachers collecting full paychecks even though they’ve been accused of various bad things. They whine about how taxpayers are paying these teachers to sit around doing nothing while their cases are being investigated.
Now, with the new NFL policies with regards to domestic violence violations, all of a sudden thery are intensely concerned about the fairness of it all. Why suspend a player on a mere accusation? One poisted
I changed the last sentence to…any disgruntled student could cry inappropriate conduct to the school principle/police as revenge/leverage over a teacher.
They are studiously ignoring that but are still full of concern for the rights of guys charged with knocking their partners unconscious.
Paul in KY
@Scamp Dog: Hear, hear!