Ray Rice released by Ravens and banned indefinitely by NFL

adrian522

What is the story with the new policy of 6 games for a first offense and then a year/life for second.

Seems a bit weird that Rice first got 2 games, then effectively thrown out of the league.

Why is it more serious if it's caught on camera?

Should Ray McDonald also get thrown out of the league if he is found guilty or because TMZ don't have video will it just be a 6 game slap on the wrist?

To be honest Goodell needs to step down/be sacked after all this mess.

poldebruin

I agree the NFL, Goodell and the Ravens have all handled this poorly, awfully. But why should Goodell resign over this. His job is not to hand out punishment in lieu of the American Justice system.

Rice is suspended indefinitely. I'm sure the suspension will be lifted after some requisite amount of time, but unless Rice pulls a Vick PR move, he is done in the NFL. Someone mentioned that had Vicks deeds been caught on video, he would never have been brought back, and I agree 100%. It might actually benefit Rice's cause to have served some time in jail for this, and return to the NFL a chastened and reformed man.

raze_them_all_

poldebruin wrote: »

I agree the NFL, Goodell and the Ravens have all handled this poorly, awfully. But why should Goodell resign over this. His job is not to hand out punishment in lieu of the American Justice system.

Rice is suspended indefinitely. I'm sure the suspension will be lifted after some requisite amount of time, but unless Rice pulls a Vick PR move, he is done in the NFL. Someone mentioned that had Vicks deeds been caught on video, he would never have been brought back, and I agree 100%. It might actually benefit Rice's cause to have served some time in jail for this, and return to the NFL a chastened and reformed man.

If it's not his job then why did he just ban him indefinately??

Masked Man

Cause it's his job to make money for the teams.

mikemac1

This must be the first thread dedicated to one player since Tebow :P

poldebruin

mikemac1 wrote: »

This must be the first thread dedicated to one player since Tebow :P

...in fairness though - Aaron Hernandez?

eagle eye

Just to make it clear before I post this, I am not in any way condoning what Ray Rice did. I was shocked and disgusted when I seen the video.

Rice has taken steps to make sure he doesn't do anything like this again. We don't know if he ever did anything like this before and to be fair to him he did not leave the scene.

He received a ban from the NFL and his team dealt with it. Those people coming back now and changing their actions is totally wrong. They claim they didn't know everything that happened but we all know that we are dealing with multimillion dollar organisations who investigate every potential first round draft pick thoroughly. There is no way that they didn't see this video shortly after this all happened. For me this is a case of the public being horrified, as I myself was, by the video being released and deciding to try and save as much face as they can.

He should have been banned indefinitely pending a serious investigation at the start and this should not have been dealt with in a hurry like it was.

His wife has obviously forgiven him for what he did(I don't know how she could) and the Ravens and the NFL should have spoken to her before any further action was taken imo.

Also just on the point about her attacking him. In the video we see her go at him outside the elevator and again in the elevator. While she didn't do any serous harm to him we don't know what happened before they reached the elevator and we don't know exactly what was going on. What we did see was horrifying for us to watch but all the factors have to be taken into account for us to find out what led to him doing this before we can stand on our soap box and demand he should be jailed.

That is my five cents on it. I'm not responding to people quoting me or little bits of what I said. Horrible things happen every day of our lives and some people are genuinely remorseful and there are people with major issues in their lives who do horrible things. I don't know if Ray Rice is one of them but I hope he is and that this was and will be a one off incident.

shotgunmcos

One off or not men who hit women are scum. End of.

Paully D

Letter from Steve Biscotti:

Sept. 9, 2014

Dear Ravens Stakeholder:

You deserve an explanation.

What happened with the Ray Rice incident? How could it come to this? Why didn’t we act earlier?

As a PSL holder, suite owner, sponsor and supporter, you have a stake in us. You have invested in us – emotionally as well as financially, trusted us, and believed in us. We value that trust and owe you full disclosure.

First, let us say that we did not do all we should have done and no amount of explanation can remedy that. What we can do now is share with you everything that occurred and vow to learn from all that has happened.

Here is how the situation unfolded, and here are our thoughts behind the decisions we made.

On the morning of Feb. 15, we learned that Ray and his then fiancé, Janay, had been arrested at an Atlantic City casino, and both had been charged with “simple assault” resulting from an altercation with each other. After the couple was taken to police headquarters, and after a report was written, they were allowed to leave together.

A number of Ravens’ representatives talked with Ray during the course of that day. His explanation was that after he and Janay had consumed a great deal of alcohol, they had had an argument and that they struck each other.

We at the Ravens organization issued a statement to the media that we were aware of the incident, that we had talked with Ray, and that he deserved the due process of law.

We then began our own process to discover as much as we could about what happened. We talked with representatives of the casino, the police who arrested the couple, the prosecutor and a lawyer who represented both Ray and Janay in the case. Soon after, the video of Janay and Ray coming out of the elevator became public.

We contacted the casino management and asked if there was video of the incident from inside the elevator that we could see. The casino would not share such video. We asked the local New Jersey police and the police refused as well. We asked the prosecutor’s office and that office refused. It was our understanding at that time that Ray’s attorney had not yet seen the video. NFL officials had been informed, and we know they were also trying to retrieve and/or see the video.

Assessing the situation at of the end of February, this is what we knew: A player who had been a model citizen in the community and terrific teammate for six seasons had been charged with simple assault against his fiancé. At that time, his fiancé Janay had been similarly charged.

Ray and Janay both told us nothing like this had happened before. He was showing great remorse; they were meeting regularly with our team chaplain and were diligently attending couples counseling.

In March, the prosecutor dropped the case against Janay, but elevated the charge against Ray from simple assault to aggravated assault. At this point, we decided to defer action until completion of the court proceedings. We stopped seeking to view or obtain a copy of the video. We halted our fact-finding. That was a mistake on our part.

In May, the prosecutor recommended, and the judge agreed, that Ray should be accepted into a pre-trial intervention program that will eventually have the assault charge dismissed from his record, pending a year of good behavior.
The police had seen video from inside the elevator. The prosecutor and the judge, who had also seen such video, allowed Ray into the program that would eventually clear him of the assault charge.

On June 16, Ray and Janay met with Commissioner Roger Goodell, who then announced on July 27 that Ray Rice would be suspended for the first two games of the season. Ray subsequently met with the media and answered questions.

Yesterday morning Sept 8, all of us saw the video from inside the elevator. It is violent and horrifying. I immediately came to the office and called a meeting with Dick Cass, Ozzie Newsome, John Harbaugh and Kevin Byrne. The meeting was relatively short. The decision to let Ray Rice go was unanimous. Seeing that video changed everything. We should have seen it earlier. We should have pursued our own investigation more vigorously. We didn’t and we were wrong.

We are moving forward and believe we can help put more of a spotlight on intimate partner violence, while increasing education and awareness to this issue to all in our organization. Our recently announced partnership with the House of Ruth is a start.

We view ourselves as a family. Like families, we have used tough love in the past (fines, benching and releases) with repeat offenders. Because of his positive contributions on and off the field over the last six years, Ray had earned every benefit of the doubt from our organization. We took everything we knew and decided to support Ray Rice until we could not.

We hope that Ray will continue to work to be the best husband, father and person he can be, and he will turn this awful situation into something positive. We also have learned a great deal and will continue to strive to be an organization and team you and Baltimore will be proud of. I am sorry we let you down.

Sincerely,

Stephen J. Bisciotti
Owner, Baltimore Ravens

eagle eye

And the real truth of that is that as long as it was behind closed doors they were willing to let it slide but as soon as the public seen that video and they observed the reaction to it that they decided to pretend they never seen it.

padraig_f

Seems like the NFL were at least wilfully negligent in not wanting to see the video. Apparently Rice claimed he was drunk when it happened, so they were happy to to take a drunk guy's account of what happened, and not get the video, which they had to know existed.

I'd like to think this could lead to Goodell being ousted, but Andrew Brandt is probably right...

@adbrandt: "While some call for Goodell's ouster, his bosses (owners) take note that one of least valuable franchises, the Bills, may fetch $1.1B"

poldebruin

eagle eye wrote: »

And the real truth of that is that as long as it was behind closed doors they were willing to let it slide but as soon as the public seen that video and they observed the reaction to it that they decided to pretend they never seen it.

Unfortunately this seems to be the truth of the matter, not just for Goodell, the NFL and the Ravens, but for the public and media at large. Nobody was calling for Rice to be suspended indefinitely and sacked by the Ravens, before the video was seen. People were asking for 4 or 6 game bans.

The NFL were put in a tough spot once the DA/Judge let Rice enter the pre-trial intervention program. You would think that if the DA didn't think there was anything they could make stick, then the NFL might be in dangerous territory by handing out punishment.

poldebruin

From the Onion:

NEW YORK—Following public outcry over his mishandling of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice’s aggravated assault of his then-fiancée, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced Tuesday that the league has adopted a new zero-tolerance policy toward all videotaped domestic abuse.

“We hold our players to the highest standards both as professional athletes and as people, so any violence toward women that is recorded, authenticated, and then publicly distributed will be met with an automatic suspension and fine,” said Goodell, adding that the new, stricter guidelines reflect the league’s hard-line stance against any spousal abuse that is clearly and irrefutably captured on film.

“I can assure you that any member of this league who strikes a woman in front of a live camera will face swift and heavy consequences. I also want to stress that this utterly reprehensible behavior is something we will in no way tolerate as long as the footage is completely uninterrupted and the entirety of the assault takes place within frame.” Goodell went on to clarify that in such cases, the NFL will cooperate fully with local authorities as soon as the league can no longer prevent incriminating evidence from being leaked to the media

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nfl-announces-new-zerotolerance-policy-on-videotap,36885/

raze_them_all_

LMFAO wow they aren't even hiding it, do it at home in secret lads, not where the public can see, makes us look bad like

eagle eye

poldebruin wrote: »

Unfortunately this seems to be the truth of the matter, not just for Goodell, the NFL and the Ravens, but for the public and media at large. Nobody was calling for Rice to be suspended indefinitely and sacked by the Ravens, before the video was seen. People were asking for 4 or 6 game bans.

The NFL were put in a tough spot once the DA/Judge let Rice enter the pre-trial intervention program. You would think that if the DA didn't think there was anything they could make stick, then the NFL might be in dangerous territory by handing out punishment.

The prosecutors felt that once his now wife was backing Rice that there was very little chance of a conviction I'd imagine.

Realt Dearg Sec

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

LMFAO wow they aren't even hiding it, do it at home in secret lads, not where the public can see, makes us look bad like

The key word was "onion"

Pudsy33

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

LMFAO wow they aren't even hiding it, do it at home in secret lads, not where the public can see, makes us look bad like

Whoooosh

raze_them_all_

ah didn see that got distracted reading though

Knex*

This is the same organisation that stood by Ray Lewis, in what has to be one of the most dodgy trials I have read about.

Still not believing them about the video. Rice has only been released as they would get too much flak if they kept him now. It would be a circus.

mikemac1

Baltimore Ravens ‏@Ravens 7m
The Baltimore Ravens will offer an exchange for Ray Rice jerseys at stadium stores. Details to come.

Was to be expected. The Patriots got some good press when they did this for Hernandez jerseys

eagle eye

Knex. wrote: »

This is the same organisation that stood by Ray Lewis, in what has to be one of the most dodgy trials I have read about.

Still not believing them about the video. Rice has only been released as they would get too much flak if they kept him now. It would be a circus.

Yeah fully agree. The reasons for letting him go now are firstly to save face and secondly because he would be heckled at every stadium they visit and probably at home games as well.

And you know what happens in situations like that is the other players have seen the video and they don't like it one bit either and there is unrest in the locker room.

helimachoptor

Schefter just posted this

@AdamSchefter: A law enforcement official told the AP he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee to an NFL executive three months ago.

If true and there's proof it's a bloody damning indictment of the nfl

Itssoeasy

helimachoptor wrote: »

Schefter just posted this

@AdamSchefter: A law enforcement official told the AP he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee to an NFL executive three months ago.

If true and there's proof it's a bloody damning indictment of the nfl

Oh if that's true then oh oh the league is in trouble. It's probably a coincidence but it seems neither the around the nfl and rich eisen podcasts are up yet.

It's a conspiracy ted .

helimachoptor

Literally just breaking on twitter now

Itssoeasy

Adam shefter is saying the source played a few seconds clip of a voicemail confirming receipt of the video.

This just keeps on getting worse.

eagle eye

I'll have Goodell's head on a platter please:D

Itssoeasy

Oh it gets better it's apparently a female voice who confirms they got it and says, "your right. It's horrible." It's also dated to April which is five months ago.

helimachoptor

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Oh it gets better it's apparently a female voice who confirms they got it and says, "your right. It's horrible." It's also dated to April which is five months ago.

Wow..

mikemac1

Goodell covered himself

He told NFL Network that he never saw it and neither did any league employee to his knowledge

Maybe some lowely VP is going to get fired for not passing it upwards

Itssoeasy

Report: Law enforcement sent Rice video to NFL exec months ago
Posted by Michael David Smith on September 10, 2014, 5:04 PM EDT
AP
A new report is calling into question NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s claim that no one in the NFL had seen the infamous Ray Rice video until it was published on Monday.
The Associated Press is reporting that a law enforcement source sent the security camera footage to an NFL executive months ago.
That law enforcement source also played a voicemail from an NFL office number for the Associated Press. In the voicemail, a female voice confirms receiving the video, expresses thanks for sending it, and says, “You’re right. It’s terrible.”
There is one discrepancy in the Associated Press report: Although the AP says the video was sent three months ago, the same report says the voicemail was dated April 9, which is five months ago.
The NFL has come in for harsh criticism over the last three days after TMZ published the video showing Rice brutally assaulting his wife in a casino elevator. Goodell has insisted that neither he nor anyone else in the league office saw the video.
The Associated Press is not publishing the name of either the law enforcement source or the NFL official who received the video from that source.
Shortly after the Associated Press report was published, the NFL released a statement saying the league will look into it.

Yet the league are still saying they are not aware of tape and are looking into the APs report.