Why the NFL Messed Up So Badly on Ray Rice

If you’re even a hint of a sports fan, then you’ve seen the headlines filled with the Ray Rice scandal in the NFL. Here’s the quick recap: casino footage leaked months ago of superstar Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice dragging (very ungraciously) his unconscious fiancee (now wife) out of an elevator. The implication from the video and the ensuing police report that it was a domestic dispute that turned violent, leaving Rice’s fiancee knocked out cold. The NFL responded by suspending Ray Rice for two games, which was instantly declared by the fans and media at large as being much too lenient for a very serious crime. Sports blogs and talk shows lit into the NFL for the paltry message it sent about the seriousness of domestic violence. In a rare about face, the commissioner admitted he got it wrong and changed the domestic violence penalties to be much stiffer in the future. Everyone congratulated the commissioner on his transparency in the issue. Matter settled. Ray Rice was welcomed back into Baltimore. Let’s play some football.

And then TMZ played the other half of the video, the as yet unseen portion, showing the world what a world class athlete can do with a left hook to a woman he’s having a dispute with. It’s disturbing to say the least. The Baltimore Ravens and the NFL do yet another about face. After welcoming Ray Rice back, they cut him from the team and the NFL indefinitely suspends him. Matter settled, let’s get back to football. Wrong.

All day yesterday I listened to sports commentators ripping into the Ravens organization and the NFL at large. Why? Because they both claimed there was no way to get that other footage, the one that a celebrity gossip website apparently had no problem getting. Because the footage was so heinous that Ray Rice should have been cut immediately, not six months and multiple fan outrages later. Because the NFL knew what was on that footage through interviews, and they didn’t suspend Rice because of what he did. They suspended him because of the fan outrage of what he did. That’s not leadership, that’s just being reactionary.

The narrative coming up from the talking heads (which may or may not be proved accurate in the days to come) is that the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens had one overarching goal in this whole thing: the bottom line. Ray Rice was a superstar. Ray Rice was a pillar of the community in Baltimore. Ray Rice sold a lot of jerseys and a lot of tickets. They were hoping the whole thing would just go away. The way this whole thing played out leads many to suspect that the safety of Rice’s fiancee and the ultimate integrity of the game were secondary to the desire to continue to maximize profits. That’s why the NFL messed up so badly on Ray Rice.

QUESTION: What do you think about the whole Ray Rice situation?