The Ray Rice Elevator Video

No, they'd really only have to prove Rice told the truth in his meeting with Goodell. And multiple sources say Rice used the word "punch." Is Goodell really going to stand on an argument that says, essentially, well I knew you punched her, and that was two games, but the fact that you showed no remorse and looked like a real asshole means you're suspended indefinitely?

When Goodell says Rice was "ambiguous" in his account (which is not true according to four sources) what he's really saying is: Well, your description of DV did not include how cold and unfeeling you looked afterward.

 

It's all CYA for the fact that until that tape arrived, the league and its leading "independent" voices simply didn't think domestic violence was a very big deal. The history of non-punishment, Schefter wondering if Goodell was "lenient enough," etc.

 

Yeah, that's interesting. It kind of gives Goodell an out either way. Rice could have been 100 percent honest with Goodell, but it still didn't accurately describe how much of a psychopath Rice looked on the video.

 

If we stipulate that neither Goodell nor the Ravens saw the video — which I won't do, but let's do it just as an exercise here — then basically their argument comes down to "We were ok with you punching her, but the lack of remorse you showed in the immediate aftermath is what really changed things for us." Which, as a logical argument, is kind of ridiculous, isn't it? I mean, what's worse? Punching her in the face or not feeling immediately sorry? The PR of the second one is way worse, and that's why they cut him/suspended him indefinitely. So from a legal standpoint, it's fair to say Rice has a decent case. I'm not sure how you can say "Your description of the event was ambiguous and that's what we're suspending you for." How much detail was he required to go into? "Ok, so after I punched her, I acted like I didn't care if she lived or died, right? Then I dragged her halfway out of the elevator, flipped her around like I was annoyed she hit her head on the railing after I decked her in the face, then I almost let the elevator doors close on her, and then some security guard came over and he put an ice pack on her head and said 'She's pretty drunk, right?' and I said 'Yeah, no cops, ok?"

Rice did an awful thing. I'm also not sure you can double punish him because you thought domestic violence didn't look all that awful the first time around, but when the video got out, you figured you'd better do something quick or you'd start losing sponsors. If they'd given him a 10 game suspension the first time, I doubt people would be calling for his job now.

 

I don't know. Rice could have been in the meeting with Goodell and said, "I punched her in the face, she hit her head, I dragged her out of the elevator." But you see the video and it's so much worse than that, as bad as all of that was on it's own. Nobody can adequately describe what you see on that video.

I agree if Goodell had given him an eight game suspension the first time, none of this is happening right now.

 

Yeah, I despise what Rice did, but it seems to me he WAS punished twice for the same offense for PR purposes. The outrage at the video is what got him banned longer, but they knew full well what went on in that elevator before then.

 

True, but there is no public outrage over a failure by an NFL team to protect itself in that way.

"How dare the 49ers make themselves possibly look bad!" Nah.

 

I was talking with someone who said that his fiance/wife was also guilty of assault for spitting and slapping him.
She had no capacity to injure him at all, so how could she be guilty of anything?
Seems to me her actions were totally irrelevant.

 

No. That is assault as well. Could have easily been charged. Capacity to injure has no bearing. It's against the law to hit someone.

 

So a legitimate point or something that somehow makes what Rice did less bad?

 

There's not a DA in the world who wants to ask a jury to convict a woman of assault after she got the shit knocked out of her like that.

 

Who the hell said that? You said she didn't assault him. If she slapped him, she technically did. But his reaction should have been a felony. And she would never be charged after this incident, but if he hadn't retaliated it is possible.