Apparently they were having a vicious argument about something before all this. As the first frame comes by he appears to gesture his head toward her angrily (or spits on her) and she takes a swipe at this face and possibly connects. It 's impossible to tell if he’s arguing or spitting, but spitting would be kind of weird if they are still proceeding into the elevator together.
They get in together and he’s right next to her. He says something to her and jerks his body toward her, the slow frame rate of the video makes it very hard to see what happens next in the elevator corner. It looks like she is infuriated by what he says and shoves or slaps him and he swipes at her or pushes her and knocks her down, she gets up infuriated and comes after him and he decks her.
The video frame rate is so slow only big movements are clearly discernible and anything that happens quickly is a blur.
Well, I’m not going to stop watching the NFL because there’s a handful of dirtbags amongst the 1700-ish players in the league. This has always been so. Professional athletes are not role models, and in the case of the NFL they are gigantic behemoths that rumble the Earth and knock the shit out of each other. This has also always been true.
I’m a Bengals fan so I’ve seen my share of illegal behavior to the point of national punchlines (natch!) and what Rice did was clearly reprehensible, and he got what he deserved.
I understand why people think the NFL is so arbitrary when handing down conduct judgements, but fuck, lets put that where it goes: on the heads of the NFLPA that negotiated for Goodell to be judge, jury and executioner. And the owners that pay him.
Remember when Rothlisberger was suspended four games for alleged rape that he was never prosecuted for? Steelers fans cried foul (and well, they cry a lot anyway) but that’s this situation in reverse in a sense, isn’t it?
Perhaps, but most people I see quitting the fandom (for lack of a better word) say it’s not because of bad apples, but the institutional problems: the owners and HOs and commissioner who don’t seem to care about those dirtbags being dirtbags, who let players get brain damage, don’t do anything about it, then lie about it, who hide behind nonprofit status while practically extorting public money for new stadiums, whose public actions demonstrate a certain near exclusive focus on padding already obscene profit margins at the expense of practically everyone else.
Way to completely miss the point. The point is not that there are a few assholes; it’s the way the NFL deals with the assholes, and many other things besides. It’s the systemic practices of the institution that i don’t want to support any longer.
Yeah, he got what he deserved after weeks of NOT getting what he deserved; after an orchestrated press conference where he couldn’t find his ass with both hands, and where his victim was trotted out to take the blame for being king hit; after a two-week suspension was handed down even though it was clear that he had knocked his fiance out cold in an elevator; after the NFL and the Ravens had spent much time and effort convincing themselves and their fans that he was a changed man; and after both organizations lied about having seen the elevator video.
You seem to be arguing my point for me. Yes, the NFLPA and the owners put Goodell in. That’s why his and the NFL’s awful responses to important social issues like this need to be punished by withholding of our patronage. When i criticize the NFL here, i’m not making a narrow argument about a few people at head office; i’m talking about the whole institution, players and teams and owners and all.
And, of course, before i could finish typing all that, Leaper made precisely the same central point.
To be honest, the “few bad apples” argument is completely disingenuous. It’s a distraction, a sideshow from what’s really wrong with the organization. Come to think of it, FoieGrasIsEvil, maybe you should apply for a job with the NFL. You appear to be right on board with the institutional culture of the organization.
I imagine the average casino security guard sees a fair amount of “drunk boyfriend/buddy trying to drag passed-out drunk girlfriend/mate/whatever back to hotel room”. I think that that’d be my first thought walking in on a similar scene.
We were in New Orleans two years ago and there was a tense hotel lobby moment. I wasn’t monitoring how much my gf was drinking (at the Erin Rose). Around 3 am I realized she was barely able to stand. I helped her back to the hotel, practically carrying her. When I pushed the elevator button she crumpled to the floor. I could see the desk guy’s concern, and I made some jokey comment about her being tired.
The players commit misdeeds at roughly the same rate as the general public, IIRC. Which, if true, isn’t bad considering the socio-economic background of so many of them.
“I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend. But to have to accept the fact that it’s reality is a nightmare in itself. No one knows the pain that the media & unwanted [opinions] from the public has caused my family. To make 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 of for all his life just to gain ratings is horrific. THIS IS OUR LIFE! What don’t you all get. If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels. Just know we will continue to grow & show the world what real love is! Ravensnation we love you!”*
Is there any business in which the powers that be DO care?
My employer knows next to nothing about my personal life and doesn’t care. If I was an evil jackass and beat up my fiancee it would almost certainly have no effect on my career, and there’s a pretty good chance I could manage the situation in such a way my employer wouldn’t even know about it. (I am assuming here that as a first time offender with no history of violent behaviour I could avoid a lengthy stay in the crowbar hotel, which, depressingly, is almost certainly true.) If they did I’d say there isn’t one chance in a hundred I’d lose my job. I am sure my boss would think less of me as a person if they found out, which they likely would not, but as an employee I’d be just as valuable as I was before and could easily talk my way back into their good graces.
The world is full of jackasses and most of them have jobs and most of their employers don’t care what they do when they aren’t on the clock. The NFL is in this regard not the slightest bit unusual. Indeed, if anything, professional sports leagues are MORE responsive to this sort of thing. Ray Rice’s initial 2-game suspension was way more of a punishment than I would get from my employer for the same thing. Most employers would do nothing at all. Even in publicly visible industries there is little indication the NFL is particularly unusual; people never stopped hiring Sean Penn to be in their movies, though Penn is a man who once tied his wife to a chair and beat her for hours. Where’s the outrage when Soandso Pictures gives Penn a few million to be in a movie?
Criminal justice is quite correctly meted out by the criminal justice system, not people’s employers.
Oh, stow it. It’s NFL fans, and if the sin is forgivable they all welcome back players who have done the requisite apology tour. Steelers fans welcomed back Roethlisberger, and so on and so on. In the same situation, Green Bay fans would give Aaron Rodgers the same ovation.
Thanks for quoting that. I think it explains pretty well why I find all the holier-than-thou folks in this thread pretty distasteful. It must feel so good to throw stones and meet out punishment. Pretty unconstructive if you ask me.
I am no Ben apologist… However, we need to remember that
There were no charges
there was no video
there were no eyewitnesses
the woman in question did not press charges.
So, even though it is nice to throw Ben under the bus, (and god knows if he did what was alleged, he should have been punted off the team just like Rice was), i think it isn’t exactly fair to compare the two.
Also, Ben received a 5 game suspension, correct? How does Ben get 5, but Rice only received 2?
As to your larger point, I do agree with you that I cannot think of one instance where a fan base did not forgive a star for a transgression. Part of that is the fault of our society, and the idea that “everyone deserves a second chance.” Really? Everyone?
I disagree. Not everyone deserves a second chance. Rice is getting his second chance right now, by not spending any time in jail. I don’t think he will get another chance to play football. Not in the NFL, at least. I can’t see any CFL team taking him either, and when you break it down, he would be such a PR nightmare, he wouldn’t be worth the hassle.
He was a good RB, but RB’s have a what, 6 year career if they are lucky? They are too replaceable. Rice is done.
There aren’t any. He was charged but entered a pretrial diversion program, ostensibly because the fiancee/wife refused to cooperate with the prosecution. I don’t understand why they needed her cooperation when they had the video, but I suppose a jury could reasonably (if not sensibly) conclude that there is reasonable doubt that Rice was the aggressor in the “fight”.
It merely proves that the NFL’s player conduct policies are about hushing the masses, rather than player discipline.
Not going to happen. Impeaching the commissioner requires 24 owner votes. I doubt you’d get two right now considering how well Goodell made out for the owners in the last collective bargaining agreement.
Oh, come on. Her statement still implies that she was partly responsible for this. “To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret every day is a horrible thing.” Why does she regret it? Because she couldn’t take a punch better?
If you are a Raven’s fan, you need to take a step back and think about how you would react if it wasn’t a Raven.
If the NFL wants it’s players to wear pink for breast cancer awareness, how can it ignore its players kicking the shit out of their spouses/partners?
I don’t think it is fair that Janay is being punished for this a second time, but the sad reality is that she married Ray Rice. If she walked away, this video would have done nothing bit positive things for her and her kids… She would have received an outpouring of sympathy and understanding. She is receiving that now, but unfortunately, she is tied to Rice financially and is paying the penalty along with Rice.
Yeah that sucks and isn’t fair, but in the real world, Rice would be in jail and Janay would be raising those kids without Rice’s paycheck anyway. And THAT is what should have happened, IMO.
If I punched my wife hard enough to knock her out and had it all captured on film and plastered all over the internet…I’d be fired, as would most people, and rightly so.
I’m not “holier-than-thou” and don’t care to think of it those terms (seeing as many religions are a little shaky on the whole misogyny thing) but I am definitely less “punchy-than-him”.
