I’m sorry. Did I miss some shocking new development in the Ray Rice case? What changed?
On Monday morning, Rice was a running back for the Baltimore Ravens who was serving a two-game suspension for striking his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, and knocking her unconscious in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino last February. None of those facts have been in dispute for months now. Rice even publicly apologized for the domestic violence as did Palmer, who by that time had become his wife (she was already the mother of his daughter).
By Monday evening, Rice had become a pariah. The Ravens had terminated his contract and the National Football League had opted to significantly prolong Rice’s detention. “Based on new evidence that became available today,” said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, “[Commissioner Roger Goodell] has indefinitely suspended Ray Rice.”
New evidence. What new evidence? A brief video, obtained and released by TMZ Sports, that shows Rice delivering the knockout left hook to Palmer’s jaw and then dragging her out of the elevator as if she were a smelly duffel bag? That footage, sickening as it is to watch, was not new evidence.
But it was very bad publicity.
Was anyone in the dark about how Palmer, now Janay Rice, came to be unconscious and lying face down in that elevator? Had Rice ever denied it?
And yet, in the span of 48 hours an incident whose salient and ugly facts had been public knowledge all summer suddenly went viral. Why? One word: image.
The images of the compact and muscular Rice, a three-time Pro Bowl running back who also has a Super Bowl ring, striking his fiancee and dropping her like a sack of flour, and then nonchalantly dragging her from the elevator without even a moment’s remorse – though he did stoop down to grab one of her heels because chivalry is not dead – are devastating for the image of the NFL. And that TMZ Sports released this footage on the morning of the NFL’s season-opening Monday Night Football doubleheader, well, that was simply a coincidence, right?
In the span of a day, it seems that everyone but the victim of Rice’s brutal punch has divorced themselves from him. The Ravens are already offering a jersey exchange for fans who just do not want to be seen in the one garment that has now replaced the white tank top as emblematic of “wifebeater.” EA Sports has announced it will wipe Rice from its “Madden 2015” game by Friday. Rutgers, Rice’s alma mater, is removing photos of him from its football venue, High Point Solutions Stadium, before it hosts Penn State on Saturday.
Where once Rice’s image was tarnished by his neanderthal behavior, those images suddenly tarnished everyone associated with him. Then again, aren’t the reputations of institutions such as the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens and Rutgers somewhat less reputable because it took that TMZ video to spur them to appropriate action? And what of the Atlantic County prosecutor, Jim McClain, whose office had jurisdiction over this case and who did see the video months ago and still offered Rice a pre-trial diversion program?
Certainly the D.A.’s case against Rice was not abandoned, in terms of seeking a conviction and jail time, for a lack of evidence. Why did McClain go even softer on Rice than Goodell did, and where may I go to exchange my Jim McClain jersey?
The overwhelming sense – and Janay Rice’s willingness to appear at a press conference apologizing “for the role that I played the night of the incident” – is that everyone involved, Mrs. Rice included, preferred not to address what happened. Ray and Janay did not want that punch to threaten his career or that five-year, $40 million contract he signed in 2012. The Ravens did not want to lose one of their best players and Goodell had little interest in opening a window into that very dark room, the one in which women endure abuse, emotionally and/or physically, in order to remain in relationships with NFL players.
They were all craven for the Raven. The right thing to do was whatever the easiest thing to do was. For Ray and Janay Rice, for the Ravens, for Goodell. Everyone stood to suffer financially if McClain’s office pursued its initial charge of aggravated assault. And as for McClain’s office, an assistant prosecutor, Diane Ruberton, told NJ.com at the time that “the victim’s input is considered.”
Everyone, even Janay Rice, wanted this incident to vanish. Then TMZ gave them no choice.
Meanwhile in Norman, Oklahoma, the college football Sooners have suspended freshman blue-chip running back Joe Mixon for the season after he punched a fellow student, whom he did not know, in the face. You may salute the Sooners, currently ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press poll, for having taken such an emphatic stance in this case. And, relative to how lightly Goodell initially sanctioned Rice, they should be.
Then again, the videotape of Mixon smashing that woman in the face and breaking her nose will be released to the public on November 1 – unless TMZ obtains it first. Is it too early to offer an exchange on a Joe Mixon jersey?
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