Ray Rice – 2 games

well. police supposedly have footage of rice knocking her unconscious. that wasn’t released to the public.

i was also angry at how harbaugh responded to this whole thing.

“It’s not a big deal, it’s just part of the process,” Harbaugh said, via ESPN. “There are consequences when you make a mistake like that. I stand behind Ray. He’s a heck of a guy. He’s done everything right since. He makes a mistake, alright? He’s going to have to pay a consequence. I think that’s good for kids to understand it works that way. That’s how it works, that’s how it should be.”

maybe it should be a big deal. maybe i don’t know all the facts.

just not acceptable to me that it was a 2 game suspension. i realize people make mistakes. but in this case. i gotta agree with wv. guys are getting hammered for smoking pot and then this guy gets away with a 2 game suspension?

InvaderRam wrote:

well. police supposedly have footage of rice knocking her unconscious. that wasn’t released to the public.

i was also angry at how harbaugh responded to this whole thing.

“It’s not a big deal, it’s just part of the process,” Harbaugh said, via ESPN. “There are consequences when you make a mistake like that. I stand behind Ray. He’s a heck of a guy. He’s done everything right since. He makes a mistake, alright? He’s going to have to pay a consequence. I think that’s good for kids to understand it works that way. That’s how it works, that’s how it should be.”

maybe it should be a big deal. maybe i don’t know all the facts.

just not acceptable to me that it was a 2 game suspension. i realize people make mistakes. but in this case. i gotta agree with wv. guys are getting hammered for smoking pot and then this guy gets away with a 2 game suspension?

Yeah, I agree that Goodell’s response to a player knocking a woman unconscious is ridiculous and Harbaugh calling the actions of his prize thug a “mistake” would be laughable if it wasn’t so reprehensible.

But LA I can’t imagine any mitigating circumstances. He’s a trained athlete. She’s not. That calls for more restraint on his part, regardless. They were apparently both striking each other. That still doesn’t call for a knockout punch. Or even a violent push (and it would have to be pretty violent a push to knock her out.) If nothing else he could have just stopped the elevator and gotten out. Besides, if there’s more video, why, as you yourself say, hasn’t that been leaked?

Here’s the police report–>

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bal-ray-rice-arrest-incident-report-pdf-20140216,0,4649635.htmlpage

http://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2014/2/16/5417974/casino-video-shows-ray-rice-and-fiance-assaulting-each-other
“After reviewing surveillance footage it appeared both parties were involved in a physical altercation,” the police report states, via The Baltimore Sun. “The complaint summons indicates that both Rich and Palmer struck each other with their hands. The responding officer signed a simple assault complaint against both Rice and Palmer.”

Welcome aboard, Expat.

And thanks for the article, it was interesting.

Whatever the NFL does is their business, their decision. They are the governing body for this group of businesses called NFL Football Teams so they can do whatever they want and I don’t have any basis in law or practice to form an opinion as to whether a two game suspension is appropriate.

If any of us did this, what would our employer’s governing body do? Do any of us work in an environment where our employer and others like it are regulated by a larger management group? I think the Ravens should have taken action before the NFL did. As a business owner, I would not want this kind of action affecting the rest of my players, affecting the fan’s/customer’s perception of my business, affecting my bottom line. As a decent human being, I would not want to employ a person like Rice, I would get sick just seeing him in my team’s locker room, walking around and acting like nothing happened. If I owned the Ravens, I would sit down with Rice and talk about what happened. Did she have a weapon and was he physically threatened by her? Or did he hit her in a rage brought on by alcohol or an argument? If I was satisfied that he made a once-in-a-lifetime mistake in the heat of the moment and he has been a good person up until now, I would give him a second chance. But, if he didn’t show any remorse and came off as if it was no big deal, this is my personal business not the team’s concern, or if he just acted like being a valuable football player makes disciplining him for something like this too costly to the team and I better let it ride, I would fire him on the spot and have him escorted out by security.

Whatever the NFL does and whatever the Ravens do is above and beyond what the law should do. This is what bothers me from the article:

The 27-year-old Rice has been accepted into a diversion program, which upon completion could lead to the charges being expunged.

So what does this mean? The US Justice system sends him to counseling and he gets through it with a passing grade and it’s like it never happened? What the hell, the NFL punishment a lot harsher than the laws that are written to protect us. Maybe we should be discussing minimum sentencing rather than NFL personal conduct penalties.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 4 months ago by snowman.

Where is the outrage? I feel like I’m in crazy town.

the indifference is astounding. just unbelievable. i don’t want to judge rice. i don’t want to say he has no remorse or if he is acting like nothing happened.

but the punishment is unreal. he needs to have a punishment appropriate for what happened. it’s unacceptable.

I don’t really agree with some things in this article. Just putting it out there.

—

Stephen A. Smith Suspension Exposes ESPN’s Bigger Problem

By Brian Lowry

https://tv.yahoo.com/news/stephen-smith-suspension-exposes-espn-bigger-problem-013417782.html

ESPN has a problem. It wants to be in the thick of things, to be part of every major debate pertaining to sports. But its commentators and analysts – rooted as they are in trade deadlines and X’s and O’s – can be loose cannons, occasionally getting in over their heads when pressed to address topics that go beyond their areas of expertise.

Stephen A. Smith – suspended for his remarks about domestic violence pertaining to the NFL’s questionable action regarding Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice – is just the latest to engender controversy in one of these scenarios.

First, Smith awkwardly suggested that women can play a role in provoking situations of domestic violence. Then he began apologizing and seeking to clarify those remarks via Twitter. Then he went on air and apologized some more. And then ESPN still opted to discipline him.

But the channel can’t really have it both ways. If the goal is to be provocative – and those participating in these free-for-alls are, inevitably, encouraged to be colorful and bicker – it only stands to reason people are occasionally going to say questionable or offensive things, especially when tackling hot-button political issues.

At this point, it’s hard to keep track of all the flare-ups. There was basketball analyst Chris Broussard expressing his faith-based disapproval of homosexuality in relation to Jason Collins becoming the NBA’s first openly gay player. Rob Parker was suspended for questioning quarterback Robert Griffin III’s “blackness.” Mike Ditka called Jonathan Martin a “baby,” saying he wouldn’t want to coach him, for the bullying accusations that resulted in the NFL acting against Miami Dolphins teammate Richie Incognito. Elsewhere, another former coach, Tony Dungy, created headaches for NBC Sports with his comments about Michael Sam.

And so it goes. Athletes are people, after all, and thus the stories about them can be as ugly and troubling as anything humanity can dredge up. But a channel that obsesses so relentlessly over what city LeBron James calls home is often ill-equipped to do a quick pivot and deal with matters that touch on harassment (workplace or sexual), gay rights or race.

ESPN has taken some steps to bolster its journalistic bona fides, from hiring Keith Olbermann – who, love him or hate him, has a background in covering news that goes well beyond the playing field – to columnist Jason Whitlock. For the most part, though, the network is too often left relying on whoever’s available to cover the story of the moment – a prisoner, like virtually everyone else, of the vagaries of the 24-hour news cycle.

Corporate justice is never dispensed with complete uniformity in these instances, and one can argue till the cows come home about who made comments that merited a suspension and who didn’t.

The bottom line, though, is that if ESPN continues to cover the breadth of sports in all its messy, complicated glory – and expects to do so by featuring people who spend most of their time preoccupied with the minutia of the game – well, let’s just say the PR department should keep several versions of a boilerplate apology on file, just in case.

Keith Olbermann calls for Roger Goodell to resign. I couldn’t agree more.

Some of my thoughts:

So much about Goodell’s handling of this is just so wrong. Having Ray Rice’s wife tell her side IN FRONT of Ray and his agent and attorney? WTF? How is that supposed to get him to the truth? And Goodell SAW the tape of Ray striking his then fiancee, so he can’t pretend that he doesn’t know.

I’ve got two daughters and this whole thing makes me sick. What kind of message does it send if a multimillionaire gets a 2 game suspension, a standing ovation from fans and he never has to utter any words saying things like “I struck her” or “I did it” or “What I did was wrong”. No, he has been allowed by the league to use all this passive voice bullcrap like “situation”.

KO is right on this one. Goodell has played the corporate stooge for too long. He has NEVER been a Commissioner and it’s time for his reign of failure to end.

The NFL needs an actual Commissioner to LEAD the NFL forward.

****

As for attacking the messenger…

I really don’t care who conveyed the message.

The point is that a 2 game suspension for knocking a woman unconscious irrespective of who she is or what the relationship is disgusting on a number of levels.

Moreover, Roger Goodell has failed every test as Commissioner.

The very idea that he can look at people with a straight face and say he cares about the health and safety of players when for 2-3 years, he had PROOF of the connection between multiple concussions and CTE, yet continued to have the league tell rookies that there WAS NO CONNECTION so that they could not engage in informed decision making about their health, playing style or medical care is beyond unconscionable. THEN, to have him lead the charge to make deals with the networks to try to lock players out over restitution for that and further, holding up the settlement because he was trying to negotiate LESS money for former players even as the league is seeing record profits… well, he’s a disgusting example of a human being and considering this is JUST ONE WAY in which he’s failed as the NFL’s Commissioner, he should resign.

There are enough ways Roger Goodell has failed if one were inclined to fully articulate them to write a rather long book.

So, it really doesn’t matter WHO says Roger Goodell should resign, because whether Keith Olbermann says it or someone you like says it, the case for it is and has been overwhelming for some time now.

Roger Goodell is and has been a failure as NFL Commissioner and he needs to resign.

****
As for the Commish only works for the owners…

Well, then his role is far different than the role of other Commissioners. Baseball, for instance, has a history of very independent Commissioners. So the idea that a sports Commissioner is a de facto owner’s lackey isn’t born out by history. Some have been, but they don’t have to be. That’s a choice.

Each Commissioner has the opportunity to represent the league’s owners and the league WHILE at the same time representing the Office of the Commissioner with integrity and diligence. Goodell made his choices and he abandoned any pretense of integrity and diligence.

Goodell started out as Corporate Counsel for the NFL and never left that job. They just changed his title, but he never stopped doing the job of Corporate Counsel. They just expanded his responsibilities a little bit.

You don’t promote a your own corporate lawyer to an oversight position like Commissioner because you expect that he’ll grow morals or a spine and Goodell didn’t disappoint. He’s been everything the owners dreamed…an moral black hole whose sole interest is the owners (with the game a very distant second), but couched and caged by a lawyer’s verbal skills to create the flimsiest of facades that the “Commish” is on the job, policing the NFL neighborhood.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Moreover, beyond the CTE issue which is a really big deal for me as someone with a brain lesion who deals with daily migraines and cluster headaches (so I understand what the chronic pain from CTE is like) and the heartbreaking line of former players who committed suicide without ever understanding why in part because the league had financial incentive to ensure they never know, long term I question how much I want to support a league that justifies minor penalties for woman beaters.

It’s possible for an NFL Commissioner to be a business person AND get the NFL on better footing with not only CTE, but with a bunch of trench rules so that OL/DL can have a chance to leave the game and have a life. He or She could address the change about Marijuana enforcement so that it doesn’t affect rosters the way it does now. Moreover, the NFL could actually LEAD and work with researchers abroad (since with marijuana being a schedule A drug, it can’t be used for research for medicinal benefits, that’s the definition of a Schedule A drug, it has no medicinal benefit) to fund additional studies like the one done by the man who discovered THC in Israel who’s studies point to THC being CURATIVE for Post Concussion Syndrome, which could potentially help in remediating some players from experiencing CTE after their playing days are over. As well, it’s possible to develop THC based medicines that don’t make a person “high”, which is very important if we’re going to talk about actual facts and medicine and how it would affect the NFL and why THC-based alternatives are so important as opposed to the opiate based alternatives that the NFL has pushed for decades that has led to hundreds of addicts and thousands of complications in that time.

And NFL Commissioner could still make the owners scads of money AND have integrity with respect to the game, the rules, the players, the fans, the NFL communities and the law. None of that is impossible.

But…it does mean that the Commissioner has to be a leader, someone who has the ability to make the hard choices and demonstrate to all involved that those hard choices are in everyone’s best interest.

Roger Goodell was never that guy. The league didn’t want that guy. Unfortunately, they got exactly who and what they wanted.

Now, they need someone with integrity to clean up after Goodell. He has to go. And really, it doesn’t matter who calls for his dismissal. I mean, they’ve got former players as broadcasters on the NFL Network saying they’re embarrassed as former players to be associated with this latest decision saying so on record.

Seriously, the NFL deserves better.