Former NFL running back Ray Rice has been cut by the Baltimore Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the National Football League after a video of him punching his fiancé in the face on an elevator.
The incident occurred in February 2014. Initially, both Rice and Janay Palmer, his then fiancé now wife, were both charge but, those charges were dropped. A month later, Rice was indicted on the charge of third-degree assault. A short time after, Rice and Palmer got married. Rice was given the option to enter a pretrial intervention program that would dismiss the third-degree aggravated assault charge upon completion.
According to USA TODAY Sports, throughout the months following the Baltimore Ravens organization had supported Rice. John Harbaugh, the Ravens Head Coach, said in an interview, “He’s done everything right since (the incident). He makes a mistake. He’s going to have to pay a consequence.” In July 2014, NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, imposed a two-game suspension on Rice at the start of the regular season.
On Monday, September 8, 2014, TMZ released video footage of that fateful night in the elevator and caused a media storm. The video is disturbing, to say the least. You can see the tension between the two before they get on the elevator and the escalation of events thereafter. What is most shocking, in my opinion, is the lack of reaction after Rice punches his fiancé in the face. She is laid out on the floor and he is standing over her, just standing. His demeanor felt cold. Even when he is pulling her body out of the elevator, there is a lack of care.
Let me say this, I do not condone violence at all whether it be a man hitting a woman or a woman hitting a man. It does not matter whether one person is stronger than the other, taller than the other, etc. When you put your hands on someone else it shows a lack of respect and is just an unacceptable way to handle oneself as an adult. Ray Rice had no business balling up his fist and putting his hands on her, let alone punching her in the face. I believe that Rice’s initial punishment did not fit the crime. A two-game suspension in the grand scheme of things does not reflect the severity of the situation.
Now that the media has gotten involved and the public is calling for more severe action, the NFL has handed down one down. There has been talk of banning Ray Rice for life but, I do not believe it is necessary, for the most part because, I don’t see another team being willing to take on the possible backlash that would come with it. It has been seven months since this event initially occurred. It has been almost three months since the NFL initially suspended Rice for two games. Now that TMZ has released video footage, and the NFL claims this is the first time they’ve seen it, how is it at all possible that any investigation into this incident even occurred? I watch A LOT of crime shows, when something happens; camera surveillance is usually the first piece of evidence that is requested.
There are two things that are very clear to me. First, Public opinion is more important than anything else. Secondly, either way you look at it, somebody or a group of people was incompetent in doing their job and I believe that somebody besides Ray Rice should have their head on the chopping block as well.
Hudson’s career at Old Dominion University has spanned an amazing 40-years and impacted the Athletic Department in a way that will not be forgotten. He began as a student manager for Monarch baseball and basketball, served as the primary media contact for a variety of sports including men’s basketball and men’s soccer and has been the SID at ODU since 1984! For all of his hard work over the years, Hudson has received various awards and honors including being named to the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame.
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