I don’t know if it’s fair to criticize them based on a counterfactual, but is there any chance the Ravens cut Rice if he *hadn’t *been historically awful last year? I doubt it.
The face of the team and patron saint for years to come was involved with, possibly committed, and covered up murder.
So no, if Ray Rice ran for 1400 yards last year and looked like he might this year, they’d be building a statue.
The Ravens and the league both had to have seen that video, right? You’d think the Ravens would have cut him before the season started just on the assumption that it would eventually leak and look bad. Maybe Baltimore decided to stick with him after the league decided on a 2 game suspension.
As far as the league goes, the only explanation I can see is that they saw the video, talked to Rice and his wife, and honestly felt 2 games was appropriate. What I don’t understand is how they could honestly feel that way.
The math works.
16 nanograms = 16 game suspension
2 punches to the wife = 2 game suspension
The league has made illegal hands to the face a point of emphasis this season.
In fairness, the Ray Lewis stuff came under different ownership. And it’s still better than the Rams, who kept a player who definitely killed someone.
Donte Stallworth was signed by the Ravens, Redskins (twice) and Patriots after his DUI Manslaughter conviction.
Forgot about him.
You forgot the Huffington Post. Also, your link doesn’t work.
Supposedly they didn’t see the video when the original ruling was made. Presumably, if true, Rice and his wife came in and told a different story with more mitigating information and the convinced the police, the league and the Ravens that it was the truth.
Now the video gets released and the NFL gets a “get out of jail free” card that allows them to alter their decision and get the public back on their side.
The much more cynical view is that the league saw this video and decided 2 games was enough, then when the backlash occurred they decided to quietly turn the video over to TMZ and set up this series of events (timed to occur AFTER the opening Sunday of games and after the NFL announced it’s new harsh prescribed penalties) so they could swoop in like heroes.
Pick the story that you want to believe.
I don’t see how the video makes any difference. There was no dispute that he slugged his wife in the face. There was no dispute that he dragged her unconscious body out of the elevator by the hair. Either he was guilty, and deserved to be suspended, or he wasn’t, and didn’t. Since he admitted he was, apparently two games is the appropriate penalty.
I tend to agree with what you say here but, as i said today in the thread i started about this issue (thread started way back in May), it’s amazing how many people were arguing that she must have done something really bad to provoke it. This wasn’t helped by the awful press conference that Rice and his now-wife held in May, where they were trotted out to face the media, and where she took much of the blame upon herself, suggesting that she might have done something to justify the knockout blow. Some people on the internet even speculated, based on this, that she must have been attacking him furiously, and he simply did his best to defend himself.
At the very least, i hope those people are ashamed of themselves now. That goes double for Ravens fans who were openly and pointedly cheering for Rice at public appearances and at pre-season games this year, although no-one should kid themselves that this is something unique to Baltimore; plenty of other teams’ fans would have done exactly the same thing.
I’ve been a Ravens fan since i arrived in the United states. I’ve seen them win two Superbowls, and i’ve rooted for them for 14 years now. I think that the way the team handled this was shameful and despicable, and the fact that they finally got around to cutting him today doesn’t change my evaluation.
But while it’s easy to take shots at the Ravens, as some have done in this thread, the NFL has been just as bad. And while the shots at the Ravens are deserved, they are, in a very literal sense, cheap shots, in that it costs nothing to make them. Even people who have been very critical of the NFL in its handling of all this were still, by and large, turning on their TV sets yesterday to catch the start of another new and exciting season of football.
When the NFL sees that the worst thing likely to come out of a scandal like this is a bit of Twitter outrage, and when it sees that no-one is interested in actually holding the League accountable by switching off at game time, what incentive do they have to do the right thing?
I’ve grown to love American football in my time in this country, but i didn’t watch a single game yesterday, and if i can hold true to my commitment, i won’t be watching a game all year. I’ve dropped out of all my fantasy leagues. I’m quitting the NFL. I won’t pretend it will be easy, but i think it’s the right thing to do.
I’m going to try not to panic after one game, but oh my Gawd the Bears looked awful yesterday. Now it’s off to San Francisco, where we haven’t won since before our Super Bowl win. If we can’t beat the Jets in Week 3, I will be watching a lot of postseason baseball this year.
So, did the wheels come off Colin Kaepernick, or just his shoestrings?
Over/Under on Eli interceptions tonight?
Interesting defensive strategy there by the Giants. I guess Calvin has proven he can beat man-to-man, double, and triple coverage. I admire the outside-the-box thinking that would lead them to try 0 man coverage to see if that works. 
Does anyone celebrate his own mediocrity as much as Golden Tate? No 1000 yard seasons, no Pro Bowls, but every catch he makes deserves posturing and self congratulations. Douchebag.
Okay, I’m just a bit confused. How exactly do you get defensive holding on a field goal attempt? There’s no receivers for you to hold, and you are trying to get in to block the kick.
Wow, the Giants looked a bunch of guys who’d just met taking part in a pickup game. That was really bad.
One defender yanks a blocker out of the way to clear a path for another defender. It’s rare, but I’ve seen it called.
Only a Bengals fan can talk smack after one win on the season. Look, I understand it’s hard to put things in perspective when your team has never won anything. Ever. But, I’d trade one Super Bowl win over the past decade for 10 playoff appearances in a row with a first round exit. Luckily, as a Steelers fan, I have two Super Bowl championships in the last 10 years to make the down seasons tolerable.
And yes, making the playoffs isn’t a big deal…it’s the base standard. Below that is underperforming, and both the Ravens and the Steelers underperformed last year. However, making the playoffs is not something to get excited about…it’s the standard. They SHOULD make the playoffs every year. See, a good franchise is where a bad year is 8-8. A bad franchise is when making the playoffs and a first round exit is considered a good season. A first round exit isn’t a good season…it’s a middling season. You accomplished what you set out to do as a baseline, but didn’t achieve anything else. A first round exit is essentially the same as missing the playoffs entirely, IMO. A good season is making the Super Bowl. A great season is winning it all, nothing less.
I mean, the last time the Steelers were sub-500 was in 2003. And ask any Steelers fan right now if they are satisfied with the team’s performance the past few years, and you’ll know that we aren’t. I don’t expect an amazing team this year either, but we may still squeak into the playoffs. However, I’m hoping over the next two years to get back to quality…which means winning playoff games and contending for a title.
Good teams in the AFC North, with playoff appearances, titles, etc since the AFL/NFL Merger (aka, modern football):
Steelers: 26 playoff appearances in 44 seasons (59%)
Ravens: 9 playoff appearances in 18 seasons (50%)
**Super Bowl Championships: **
Steelers: 6 (13.6% of all seasons played)
Ravens: 2 (11.1% of all seasons played)
Conference Championships:
Steelers: 8 (18.1% of all seasons played)
Ravens: 2 (11.1% of all seasons played)
Division Titles:
Steelers: 20 (45.5%)
Ravens: 4 (22%…this isn’t so great)
Those are what good teams look like. Winning a championship more often than every 10 years and making the playoffs over half the time.
Now the Ohio Teams:
Bengals: 12 playoff appearances in 44 seasons (27.2%)
Browns: 11 playoff appearances in 41 seasons (26.8%)
Super Bowl Championships
Bengals: 0
Browns: 0
Conference Championships
Bengals: 2 (4.5%)
Browns: 0
Division Titles
Bengals: 8 (18.1%)
Browns: 6 (14.6%)
See, the Bengals win the division as often as the Steelers with the conference.
And yes, I know you’re concerned about now…but the Bengals fans tend to smack talk without ever winning anything. When you win a Super Bowl…you can smack talk that season…and even for a while until another division opponent does it…or if you are consistently the better team. But having a better team for a handful of seasons, when you still have never won ANYTHING? Not worth shooting your mouth off.
I disagree.
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Video makes a world of difference.
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For many people, on a visceral level, punching your wife in the face is a worse crime than helping cover up a nightclub stabbing. They wouldn’t argue that intellectually, but I’d be willing to bet that if you hooked people up to a blood pressure monitor, punching the wife (or for that matter, dogfighting) registers more outrage than a second-degree murder in confused circumstances.
Most all of us – especially married middle-class white men – have been raised to never, ever, hit a woman, no matter what, and seeing a guy violate that code makes us nauseous. Nightclub fights among African-American men are something that’s outside our experience, and so we’re more inclined to reserve judgement.
Heck, there was more outrage at Vick than at Leonard Little, Donte Stallworth and Josh Brent combined (Granted, Vick was a bigger star). It’s emotion-driven, not logical.