The disturbing way the NFL handled the Ray Rice debacle

The Baltimore Ravens announced they’ve cut running back Ray Rice from their roster on Monday afternoon following the release of a video showing Rice punching, and knocking out, Janay Rice, Ray’ Rice's then fiance and current wife, during a fight in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino on February 15, 2014. A prior video showed only the aftermath of the fight as Ray Rice dragged his fiance outside of the elevator.

Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, followed suit hours later by handing Ray Rice an indefinite suspension from the league after previously giving him a two-game suspension partly because he was a “first time offender.”

There’s so much blame to go around that it’s hard to know where to start, but let’s begin with the way the media handled Janay Rice. Janay Rice married Ray Rice in late March, just a month after the assault. This led pundits to believe that perhaps Janay Rice had provoked Ray Rice in the elevator. The last sentence reads like junk psychology until one realizes that it wasn’t just rabid fans who were expressing these sentiments.

That now-deleted tweet came courtesy of the official account for the Baltimore Ravens. Ray Rice did not publicly apologize to his wife for attacking her until Ravens’ training camp in late July. Roger Goodell said he gave Ray Rice a lenient 2-game suspension partially because Janay Rice pleaded for her husband to be given a light sentence. It’s unclear why Goodell has now decided to go againist Janay Rice's request. On Monday evening, Janay Rice spoke her mind on social media following the release of the tape.

In light of recent issues, the NFL have handled Janay Rice's role in a bizarre, if not disturbing manner. Nude photo leaks are rightly marked as a crime, but, apparently, videos of domestic abuse are not. Few pundits have mentioned Janay Rice's continued victimhood among the fervor for retroactive justice.

Goodell claimed to have details unknown to the public, and several sources in July reported that employees of the NFL had seen the tape of Ray Rice hitting his wife. The NFL denied those reports with an official statement not long after the tape was released. On Tuesday morning, TMZ reported that the NFL employees had seen the tape, and Goddell chose not to view the evidence, instead opting to listen to Janay and Ray Rice who told him in a personal meeting that their altercation was a "mutual combat."

It's hard not to think that the cut of Ray Rice by the Baltimore Ravens and the subsequent indefinite suspension by the NFL are moves meant to quell public outcry, not punish Ray Rice for what they believed he deserved. If Ray Rice had been punished appropriately from the start, most of the fallout from this mess would have not occured. It seems that the NFL only took action because the video was leaked.

The White House has also commented on the Ray Rice case:

"The President is the father of two daughters," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, "and like any American, he believes that domestic violence is contemptible and unacceptable in a civilized society. Hitting a woman is not something a real man does, and that's true whether or not an act of violence happens in the public eye, or, far too often, behind closed doors. Stopping domestic violence is something that's bigger than football-and all of us have a responsibility to put a stop to it."

Ray Rice has entered a pretrial intervention program, and the third-degree aggravated assault charge against him stemming from this incident will be dismissed upon completion of the program.