NFL too soft on Ray Rice?

For the past several months, Baltimore Ravens’ running back, Ray Rice, has been the center of attention in the sports world. On February 15th, a surveillance camera captured him carrying his unconscious fiancee out of an elevator at a casino. It was later revealed that the two had a physical altercation in which Ray struck his fiancee, knocking her unconscious. Reports still conflict as to what/who started the altercation. Regardless, however, Ray punched Janay Palmer, who is now his wife, in the face and knocked her out cold. The NFL community knew that Rice would eventually get suspended for part of the upcoming season. The uncertainty remained as to how long of a suspension he would be given. Rodger Goodell finally ended the waiting game and officially issued the length of Ray Rice’s suspension; 2 games.

There were opposing reactions to the Ray Rice’s punishment. Some people feel that the punishment was nowhere near as long as it should have been. Others feel that the suspension was fair, especially since Ray Rice has never been (to my knowledge) in any off-field trouble in his football career. I frankly have mixed emotions about his suspension.

I have always liked Ray Rice. He’s one of the smaller guys in the league, yet he plays with as much heart as anybody else. Despite his height disadvantage, he’s a tough guy to bring down (just look at his biceps). At one point, many people considered him the best running back in the league not named Adrian Petereson, though LeSean McCoy is better than both of them (I’m an eagles fan). Aside from his physical skills, he seems like a respectable, kind-hearted individual based on the interviews and news stories I’ve seen him featured in. I am not condoning domestic violence in any matter. One thing I despise more than anything is a male who is willing to hit a female (unless his life is endangered). But we don’t know the full extent as to what happened that night. Some reports claim that Janay struck him first repeatedly and then spit in his face. To those of you who’ve never had your face spat in, it’s not the easiest thing peacefully walk away from. Also, it’s not as if Rice is a repeat offender. If this were a trouble-plagued player like Pacman Jones, Chad Ochocinco, or Josh Gordon, then of course I’d expect a much longer suspension. But since this is seemingly one of the only times Rice has gotten in any off-field trouble, I can understand why some people are satisfied with the two-game suspension.

On the other hand, I can sympathize with the mass of people who feel that the two-game suspension sends the wrong message to the public and seems like a mere slap on the wrist to another millionaire athlete. Several celebs took to social media and blasted Rodger Goodell for what many call hypocrisy and bias. If the NFL calls itself trying to clean up its public image by holding all athletes to a higher and more professional standard, Goodell has to make sure that the severity of his disciplinary actions fits the players’ offense (no pun intended). Richie Incognito was suspended for basically an entire season for the “verbal bullying” of his teammate, Jonathan Martin. Numerous players have been suspended within just the past few months for substance abuse (such as marijuna and performance-enhancing drugs) which carries a minimum 4-game suspension policy. It looks bad when players such as Lane Johnson (whom my eagles will definitely miss for the first four weeks of the season) humbly make the mistake of overlooking a certain supplement on the quite lengthy list of Substances banned by the NFL, yet Rice hits his lover in the face with a haymaker and only serves half the suspension these players have to serve.

I honestly believe that Roger Goodell was stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to this decision. He knew that Ray Rice had to be punished for what happened that night , but he also knew that the details of the incident that took place that night are still unclear. Had there been clear and complete footage of what happened from start to finish, I believe Rice would have been dealt a longer suspension. Once again, I am NOT saying that a man sucker-punching a woman is okay. All I’m saying is that I believe Rice’s clean track record and unclear evidence as to what truly happened that night are what led Rodger Goodell to suspend Ray Rice for only 2 games.