Ahem. Some awesomely prescient dude wrote this:
Additionally, why the hell did the NFL put in the new six game suspension policy if they aren’t going to follow it? This was Rice’s first incident and Goodell gave him two games sitting before the new policy came out. How do you re-punish? And even then, if you are going to just wing this and you are going to go about and re-punish him, shouldn’t it be either four more games or a lifetime ban? It just makes no sense to me. What is Goodell doing or thinking? Is he just going to wait until the furor dies down and then decide to reinstate him- will that be four, five, ten games? Is he going to string him along for a year and then ban him permanently? Again, Goodell is just making shit up as he goes along, and I have no idea how anyone can think he or the NFL is sincere.
If you take a crime seriously, and domestic abuse is one that really should be taken seriously, you need to address it seriously. You need to set out a clear guideline for what is and what is not acceptable and what the punishment will be. In this case, Goodell has failed in almost every aspect discussed here, and some that were not. The initial punishment was too lenient, the second punishment is not clearly defined, and he still has never addressed the odious tweets that came from the Ravens organization (now deleted):
Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role that she played the night of the incident.
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) May 23, 2014
Like I said, he’s just making shit up as he goes along, and that’s no way to run a small store let alone a multi-billion high profile business. Not to mention, the Players Union should and probably will have a legal field day with this illogical behavior, which will then be portrayed as the Players Union supporting domestic violence when what they are really doing is defending their union members from arbitrary justice. That will give the NFL another pr disaster and counts, in my book, as “conduct detrimental to the league,” and if you think for one second the owners won’t use that in the long run to further weaken the union, you’re on glue.
ESPN:
The NFL players’ union appealed Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension Tuesday night.
Rice was originally handed a two-game suspension in July under the NFL’s personal conduct policy after he was charged with assault following a Feb. 15 altercation with his then-fiancee in a casino elevator.
The Baltimore running back had already served the first game of that suspension when, on Sept. 8, a video surfaced showing Rice punching Janay Palmer, now his wife, in that elevator.
Within hours, the Ravens released Rice and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell extended the suspension to indefinite based on the “new evidence.”
Goodell and the Ravens say they never saw the video before Sept. 8.
“This action taken by our union is to protect the due process rights of all NFL players,” the NFL Players Association said in a statement. “The NFLPA appeal is based on supporting facts that reveal a lack of a fair and impartial process, including the role of the office of the commissioner of the NFL. We have asked that a neutral and jointly selected arbitrator hear this case as the commissioner and his staff will be essential witnesses in the proceeding and thus cannot serve as impartial arbitrators.”
The NFLPA said that the collective bargaining agreement requires a hearing date be set within 10 days of the appeal notice. It also said the hearing will require a neutral arbitrator to determine what information was available to the NFL and when it was available.
Both the NFL and players’ association agree that Rice will remain suspended indefinitely while the appeal is resolved, league and union sources told ESPN’s Ed Werder.
The union, which had until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to file the appeal, added that under governing labor law, an employee can’t be punished twice for the same action when all of the relevant facts were available to the employer at the time of the first punishment.
That last line that states “at the time of the first punishment” is just someone at the NFLPA having a jolly good time sticking the shiv in Roger, basically calling him a liar because he states, defying plausibility, that he never saw the elevator video until last week. Again, I have no idea how Goodell is keeping his job. He needs to be fired and sent somewhere where that kind of idiocy is rewarded. Maybe a gig at Fox News or he could run for the House as a Republican.