Ray, Roger, and the NFL
Nearly 7 months ago, on February 15th, Ray Rice and his then
fiancee, Janay Palmer were both charged with simple assault, stemming from an
incident at the Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. According to the
initial report, Rice and Palmer "struck each other with their hands"
but no injuries were reported. Rice's lawyer asserted that once the evidence
came out "it should wind up to be little more than a
misunderstanding." But, just two days later, the first video of the
incident emerged, a video which showed the lifeless body of Palmer being
indifferently dragged out of the lobby elevator. Wearing an orange brimmed hat,
Rice emerges from the elevator, positioned behind Palmer, holding her up and
then gently letting her fall to the ground. He appears to glance around and
then briefly raises his arms, as if frustrated or annoyed at the woman lying
unconscious at his feet. And then, very deliberately, he picks up her shoes and
grabs her legs, attempting to move the body, which is still partly inside the
elevator. An employee of the hotel approaches Rice and Rice tries to lift
Palmer to her feet, but she falls to the floor. The employee appears to say a
few words to Rice, and Rice cocks his head back like a recalcitrant child, and
begins walking away, as the employee goes to help the woman.
The video is frightening, but it was incomplete. The
preceding moments were still unknown, and quickly a narrative was constructed
that seemed to suggest that both parties were somehow at fault, and that the
video was a result of unfortunate, rather than intentional, circumstances. John
Harbaugh, the Ravens' head coach, commented on the incident less than a week
after the release of the footage, concluding that "the two people
obviously have couple issues that they have to work through, and they're both
committed to doing that. That was the main takeaway for me from the
conversation (with Rice)." Teammates quickly came to Rice's defense as did
Ravens' management. In March, Harbaugh continued supporting Rice, asserting
that, "Ray has told me his side of it, and everything we've seen so far is
very consistent with what he said."
Nearly a month after the video is released, Rice was
indicted for third degree aggravated assault, but a day later, Rice and Palmer
got married, complicating any possible charges. As a result of the marriage,
Palmer (now Rice), could claim spousal privilege, which would insulate her from
testifying, making the case against Rice incredibly difficult. Eventually, Rice
is accepted into a pretrial diversionary program, which enables him to avoid
prosecution, and allows the charges to be dismissed, pending successful
completion of the one year program. Following his acceptance into the program,
Rice and his wife addressed the media. Rice apologized profusely for his
involvement in the incident (without specifying the extent of his involvement)
and claimed that he was on the road to becoming a better person. Yet, the
language continued to place some level of blame on Palmer. Looking back on the
incident, Rice wished he and Janay could take back the 30
seconds, and that both of them were better parents, lovers and
friends. The comments suggest duplicity, when, as we would later find out,
there was none. But the most depressing and disturbing aspect of the whole
press conference stem from comments made by Janay Rice, who seemed to apologize
for her invisible role in her own assault. "I do deeply regret the role I
played in the incident that night."
Following the press conference and the decision by the
prosecutor to allow Rice into the diversionary program, NFL commissioner, Roger
Goodell met with Rice and Palmer together. The face to face meeting took place
in mid-June, and a little over a month later, the NFL handed down their
punishment. On July 27th, a little over 5 months after the first video was
released, the NFL suspends Rice for 2 games; 12.5% of one season. Ravens' GM
Ozzie Newsome calls it "significant" but "fair" asserting
that the night in question was not typical of Ray Rice. A day later, during the
opening of training camp, Ravens fans give Rice a standing ovation. After such
incriminating and horrifying evidence, Rice's punishment is counseling and a 2
game suspension, not even a slap on the wrist; more like a gentle touch.
The outrage following the suspension was fierce. Goodell and
the NFL were ridiculed, and rightfully so. Goodell attempted to defend his decision in light of much harsher penalties for substance abuse offenders, who had
received 4 game suspensions (or longer) for drug violations. Josh Gordon, a
star wideout for the Cleveland Browns, would receive a yearlong suspension for
failing multiple drug tests, as a result of marijuana use (it has since been reduced to 10 games). A source of outrage
also comes from the mechanism behind the punishments. The drug suspensions are
collectively bargained for under the league’s drug policy. Domestic abuse
punishments are at the full discretion of the Commissioner as part of the
personal conduct policy. The message was clear, drug abuse is a more serious
crime than domestic abuse.
Bowing to outside pressure, on August 28th, one month after
handing down Rice's initial punishment, Roger Goodell introduced stricter
penalties for domestic violence, including 6 game suspensions for
first time offenders. In a letter written by Goodell regarding the Rice suspension,
he acknowledged the league’s shortcomings. “My disciplinary decision led the
public to question our sincerity, our commitment, and whether we understood the
toll that domestic violence inflicts on so many families. I take responsibility
both for the decision and for ensuring that our actions in the future properly
reflect our values. I didn’t get it
right.” It was a somewhat admirable admission. But, it also suggests something
surreptitious, an acknowledgement of a shortcoming that never had to be a
shortcoming in the first place; he could have rectified the mistake before it
happened. If it took you such a miniscule amount of time to realize you were
wrong, doesn’t that mean you knew the punishment was wrong initially?
Either way, the public (and TMZ) would soon force Goodell’s
hand. A week and a half after announcing new penalties for domestic abuse, and
less than two months after the initial suspension, TMZ released the video from
within the elevator; the prologue to the initial video of Rice dragging
Palmer’s lifeless body. You don’t need to be prescient to realize what’s
coming, but it is horrifying nonetheless.
Before entering the elevator, at the top of the screen,
Palmer approaches Rice, and Rice appears to yell or possibly spit at her.
Palmer then extends her left arm, appearing to lightly graze Rice, while
continuing towards the elevator. Rice follows her into the elevator and as she
attempts to press the floor number button, she turns toward Rice, who appears
to spit in her face. Palmer immediately turns toward Rice, who quickly
unleashes a fierce left handed, closed fist, punch to Palmer’s cheek, right as
the elevator begins to close. The force of the punch vaults Palmer backwards
and nearly off her feet. After regaining her balance she begins to approach
Rice, who unleashes another violent close fisted punch to her right cheek. The
punch knocks Palmer off her feet, and with her hair flying upwards, she smashes
her face directly into the back wall of the elevator, knocking her unconscious.
The elevator closes right as the second punch is landed. As the elevator door
opens, we are re-introduced to the initial video of Rice carrying Palmer out of
the elevator.
Hours after the video was released, Rice’s contract was
terminated by the Ravens, and the team deleted a now infamous tweet which read
“Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role that she played the night of the
incident.” Not long after, the NFL announced that Rice has been suspended
indefinitely. It is very possible that Ray Rice may never play in the NFL
again. He may be reinstated at some point in the future, but that will most
likely be beyond this year, and any team willing to take a chance on Rice would
have to endure a public relations nightmare. Either way, Rice will be 28 in
January, coming off his worst season ever (he averaged 3.1 yards per carry last
season), playing a position which has an incredibly short lifespan; even if he
comes back, his career as an elite running back is essentially finished.
The release of the video has left us with more questions
than answers. And every new piece of information that is released makes the situation
even more perplexing. There is plenty to criticize. But, there are already some
people come to Rice’s defense, ridiculing the media coverage and the indefinite
suspension, and it is important to address those two topics. Janay Rice has
criticized the media coverage via an Instagram post on Tuesday. She castigated
the media coverage and the public for making “us relive a moment in our lives
that we regret every day is a horrible thing. To take something away from the
man I love that he has worked his ass off for all his life just to gain ratings
is horrific. THIS IS OUR LIFE!” This is an understandable and perfectly valid
reaction. But, unfortunately for Janay Rice, our criminal justice system was
formed in order to allow public participation. Governments (aka “The People”)
bring cases in criminal courts, not individuals, so we do have a right to weigh
in on the proper punishment, even (or especially) in cases such as these.
However, in regards to the suspension, critics do have a
point. Ray Rice did not punish himself. He wasn’t the one who decided to
suspend himself for two games. Roger Goodell made that decision. From
everything we’ve heard, it sounds like Rice was relatively forthcoming
regarding his role in the assault. I say relatively only because it also sounds
like he helped in portraying the incident as partly the fault of Janay Rice.
Either way, it is the NFL who should be blamed for Rice’s suspension, not Rice
himself. Rice should be harshly criticized for his role in the assault, but
Rice should not be criticized (or punished) for the decisions made by the
District Attorney and the NFL. Now, his future with the league is bleak. He
should have been punished more harshly by the DA (Rice probably deserved at
least a suspended sentence) and more harshly by the NFL (maybe a
yearlong suspension). While we may detest Rice’s actions (as we should), we
also live in a country in which those who have paid their debts to society have
the right to live freely in society. Rice deserves a second chance, just like
Michael Vick deserved a second chance after his dogfighting charges, and just
like Ben Roethlisberger deserved a second chance for multiple run-ins with the
law, along with a handful of other players. This mess that Goodell made is going
to make it real tough for that to happen. And thus, your blame and your ire
should mostly be pointed at him. And since the second video was released,
things have gone from bad to worse for the Commissioner.
The second video was released on Monday. On Wednesday
Goodell was interviewed on CBS and the responses he gave were astonishing.
Goodell claimed that the NFL asked “on multiple occasions” for the video and
that it was a fact that no one in the NFL had seen the tape.The response essentially confirms that the NFL knew of
the existence of the tape. And the contention that the NFL was not provided
access or was simply unable to get a hold of it, is laughable. The NFL
generates more revenue than Facebook. The NFL security team has a near
unlimited budget with near unlimited resources. If it can uncover in great
specificity the Saints bounty program or the Dolphins bullying scandal, it can
find a videotape hiding in plain sight. But he continues, “When we make a decision we
want to have all the information that is available…When we met with Ray Rice
and his representatives, it was ambiguous about what actually happened.” If
that’s the case, wouldn’t it behoove you, Mr. Goodell, in an effort to make
Rice’s answers less ambiguous, to maybe put an iota of effort into figuring out
that video’s content? How could you suspend Rice for 2 games without knowing
what actually happened?
But to make matters worse for Goodell, his story is already
crumbling. It has been reported that the NFL had actually received the video in
April. An AP report asserts that the NFL had the video and that someone in
their office confirmed its arrival via voicemail on April 9th. A female voice
from an NFL office number states “You’re right. It’s terrible.” Once again, it
is still possible that Goodell never saw the video, but how? If this is true it
shows a level of negligence, ineptitude or willful ignorance that is absolutely
stunning. But there’s more! An Outside the Lines report suggests that Rice
informed Goodell in their meeting in June, that he had in fact hit Janay
Palmer, which is in direct contradiction to Goodell’s assertion that Rice was
ambiguous. And now, a Wall Street Journal report states that Goodell didn’t pursue
the case as vigorously because he didn’t want to question Palmer’s side of the
story. It is believed that Palmer had told Goodell that she was partly responsible. That also may be true. But, the whole
point of an investigation is to find the truth. What kind of investigation
simply takes the information given by one person and rubber stamps it as true?
What kind of investigation glosses over a video which captured the entire incident?
As far as Goodell is concerned, the process he undertook or
he led, seems to be mired in willful ignorance. But this is what I can’t wrap
my head around. Did they honestly believe the video would never come out? Multiple
reports, like from Chris Mortenson and Peter King, have noted that people
within the NFL knew the contents of the tape and had even seen it very early in
the whole process. If people within the NFL saw the video, on what planet are
you living on to think, that in 2014 an inflammatory video of a well-known
celebrity, working for the largest sports league on the planet, would somehow
remain a secret? This leads to another point. If Goodell was told by Rice
himself that he had struck Palmer and Goodell had already seen the first tape
(of Palmer being dragged out of the elevator) why did the release of the video
result in an indefinite suspension? How much could the actual contents the
video changed Goodell’s mind about this while situation?
The only possible conclusion, in my mind, is that Roger
Goodell must go. This is the same commissioner who said ignorance is not a defense in the Bountygate scandal, and yet, 5 years later Goodell is using the
same excuse. In my view it doesn’t matter whether Roger Goodell actually saw
the video. There is a substantive difference between not witnessing a crime and
closing your eyes to it. Roger Goodell closed his eyes. It is very likely that
without these two videotapes, Rice would have been suspended for 2 games, and
no material changes would have occurred. The public forced these changes, not
the NFL, and certainly not Roger Goodell. Goodell claims to care about the
issue of domestic violence, yet, it took a videotape; hard incontrovertible
proof, to push Goodell to make real changes. The message before the second tape
was simple: don’t get caught. And if you think he cares about domestic abuse,
just look at all the domestic abuse incidents that Goodell has dealt with
during his tenure. It’s impressive in all the wrong ways.
In 2010, cornerback Cary Williams (then of the Ravens) was
suspended for 2 games under the personal conduct policy. Little detail was
presented and his agent concluded the suspension was due to “an incident.” It
appears that small incident was choking out his girlfriend. There is also A.J.
Jefferson, a cornerback, who was released by the Vikings 2 days before being
charged with brutally strangling his girlfriend just last year. The NFL
suspended him for a measly four games but he quickly found a job with the
Browns not long after. He currently plays for the Seattle Seahawks. There is
also Chris Rainey, who was just signed by the Arizona Cardinals. Rainey has a
sordid history, which includes a stalking charge, stemming from a text he sent
to his ex-girlfriend reading “time to die.” Rainey was drafted nonetheless but
was released last year by the Steelers after allegations surfaced that he
assaulted his girlfriend. According to witnesses, Rainey slapped his girlfriend
across the face and then chased her as she ran away. He eventually pleaded no
contest to disorderly conduct. He was never disciplined by the league. Terrell
Suggs (also of the Ravens) and a former defensive player of the year, was
accused of punching his girlfriend in the neck and then driving his car
containing their two children at a high rate of speed while his girlfriend was
dragged alongside. In a previous incident from 2009, Suggs was accused of
holding her down on the floor and pouring bleach on her and their son, kicking
her in the face, breaking her nose. Suggs has never been disciplined by the
NFL.
Two other players, Ray McDonald of the 49ers and Greg Hardy
of the Panthers, are still awaiting punishment, but are still taking the field
every Sunday. McDonald was arrested after an altercation with his fiancée who
showed police bruises on her neck and arms. Hardy was convicted (Yes,
convicted!) this summer of assaulting his girlfriend, accused of choking her
and then throwing her onto a couch covered in guns, and then threatening to
shoot her if she reported the incident. Hardy has appealed, but will start for
the Panthers on Sunday (editor's note: as of 9/14/14 Greg Hardy has been deactivated and is no longer starting).
From everything I’ve seen thusfar, it doesn’t seem there is
much support for Goodell’s ouster among the owners, although that sentiment may
change as more information is released.
Nevertheless, his actions, or lack thereof, have damaged him so badly
with such a broad range of people, who share near uniform agreement on
Goodell’s depravity, that it is nearly impossible to see him surviving in the
long run, at least without casting a ubiquitous shadow over the entire league
and its players.
But, there is some good coming out of this, regardless of
whether Roger Goodell retains his job.
This incident has shed an important
light on domestic abuse, and violence against women. While it may be repugnant
it took this long to make changes, and that it took a video to do it, changes
are coming. Health professionals and charitable organizations have already
noticed the heightened awareness. A social media campaign called “WhyIStayed”
was started and now has over 120,000 mentions. The Ravens have partnered with
House of Ruth, an organization that helps to combat domestic abuse (among other
things) and have already pledged a $600,000 donation. We often talk about the iniquity of domestic
abuse on a macro scale as this abstract concept that we must confront and
defeat, but it is very rare for so many people to see the hideousness of the
actual act itself. The brutality of those punches shock you. And those
sensations are much more important in confronting domestic abuse than those
hollow abstractions we so often hear. Seeing domestic abuse in its most raw
form is the most powerful tool in understanding its pernicious reality. It
allows for some semblance of empathy that is unavailable in the millions of
domestic abuse incidents each year in the United States. Sometimes in the
darkest of situations, there is an opportunity for change. Let’s hope so.
Note: The timeline of events (and the quotes from those events) are largely taken from an ESPN timeline, which is linked. It's pretty amazing to see such a turn of events.
Some Good Additional Reads:
Information on Professional Athletes and Domestic Violence (It's a law article)
http://harvardjsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/JSEL-Withers.pdf
A Peek at the NFL's Finances
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-04/nfls-secretive-finances-a-nearly-10-billion-mystery
Some of the Incompetence Displayed Recently
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nfl-the-league-that-never-takes-a-break/
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