Updated: Sep 9, 2014 2:51 pm
The sweeping revelations about Ray Rice’s assault against his then-fiancé now wife, as shown by the TMZ-released video this morning, have led to swift, decisive, and strong actions: the NFL changed his suspension from two games to indefinite, and the Ravens terminated his contract, absorbing a whopping $15M cap hit over the next two years in the process; the price of good PR and severing all public contact with an abuser.
The timing of the video’s release could not have been worse for Rice, who was originally slated to return to the Ravens Friday, three days earlier than normal due to their Thursday Night Game. It also came at a time when Roger Goodell was seemingly desperate to stiffen the penalty after the public outcry about the two game suspension, and the video, which contradicts Rice’s original account of what happened, and who finally did the right thing by forcing him out. The Ravens, whose name is hurt in all this, severed ties quickly to do the right thing, or at least that’s what I like to think.
Rice has no place in the NFL. No team should tolerate domestic violence, and all four professional sports leagues should copy the NFL’s policy; all four unions should work with the leagues to put these policies in the CBA. We need to get these abusers out of the league, and the courts need to throw them in jail. There has to be a strong and brutal penalty, and men like Ray Rice should be tossed out of the league. If it was their dream to play in the NFL, MLB, NBA, or NHL, then they should lose that for being such horrific people. The leagues need to be proactive.
I hope the 49ers cut Ray MacDonald if he is guilty, for the same reasons. I do not agree with them playing him against Dallas, and he should be suspended right now.
