Maybe he thought the Ray Rice video was just another Ice Bucket Challenge?

A couple of days ago, the NFL Players' Union filed an appeal of Ray Rice's indefinite suspension. AS much as it pains me to admit it, this is the right move.

I don't like Ray Rice. Well, let me backtrack. I don't know Ray Rice personally. When I still watched football, I disliked watching him play against The Patriots. Since I've made the decision to stop watching football, that is now a non-issue. As is well-established, Ray Rice knocked his wife (then girlfriend) unconscious this past spring, then dragged her limp body out of the hotel elevator. This is a despicable act. While I think could devote an entire post to issues concerning the phrase "never hit a woman", in this case, the expression holds true.

The girlfriend refused to press charges, and then married Rice. Everyone who wanted this swept under the rug used those facts - and the perfunctory two game suspension - as evidence that this was a non-issue. Janay even apologize for her "role" in the incident, and argued in Ray's defense that it was a one-time incident, and nothing like it had ever happened before.

Regardless of all of his defenders, Rice was indicted on aggravated assault, but allowed to avoid jail time by entering a Pretrial Intervention program that is almost exclusively for non-violent or victimless crimes. Per an Outside the Lines piece:

Atlantic County prosecutor James P. McClain has repeatedly declined comment to "Outside the Lines" about Rice's case, but a spokesperson for his office said: "Mr. Rice received the same treatment in the court system that any first-time offender in similar circumstances has received."

In an interview with the Press of Atlantic City on Wednesday, McClain defended referring Rice to pretrial intervention and allowing him to avoid trial. The decision was made "after careful consideration of the law, careful consideration of the facts, hearing the voice of the victim and considering all the parameters," McClain said.

My gut reaction to all of this was that he needed a good, long suspension. Maybe the entire time he is in the intervention program. It's twelve months long, so maybe twelve months of no football would be good for him. Maybe that's too extreme for a "first-time offender", but something more than two weeks was needed. However, the suspension is up to the discretion of the league, and ultimately the whim of Roger Goodell himself. Goodell heard the facts, he interviewed both Janay and Ray Rice, and ultimately, he decided that two games was plenty.

No one doubts what happened inside the elevator. No one doubted it before the second video was released, showing exactly what happened inside. I'm not going to link to the video, instead, here's a recreation, with Kevan Miller (the Bruin) standing in for Ray Rice, and Travis Moen (the Canadien) standing in for Janay. (Interesting note: Both Miller and Moen are listed at 6'2", 210lbs, and Miller dropped Moen with a single punch. Now image Moen as about 100lbs lighter, and not a trained athlete.)

None of this is to say that Ray Rice is a good or a bad person. I honestly cannot make that broad a generalization of his character, because I don't know the guy. Maybe this was an isolated incident that will never happen again. Maybe he's done things like this before, they were just never reported (I'm surprised there's been no investigation into ex-girlfriends). Or, maybe this is just the first of what will be multiple incidents. I can't say.

What I can say is that he savagely attacked a person half his size who posed zero threat to him. We all lose our tempers occasionally, but the onus is on each of us to keep our actions reasonable. Rice did not, and he should be punished accordingly. What is accordingly? The NFL's two game suspension was a joke, a slap on the wrist. They later extended that to "indefinite", which, actually, is also kind of meaningless. It's not an outright ban (though the Ravens did cut him), but it has no term limit.

Less than a month ago, the NFL changed its rules such that a similar offense by a player in the future would merit them a 6-game suspension. A second offense would ban them for life. Finally, the league is cracking down on abusers! Finally, they are sending the message that violence off the field is not the answer, and that domestic abuse will not - and should not - be tolerated! Finally, they are doing something to save face!

Face-saving aside, the new rule is harsh, but good. I mean, how hard is it NOT to beat your wife? However, the new rule combined with the indefinite suspension that was handed down a week and half later puts the NFL, and Goodell in particular, in a very bad position, and essentially forced the Union to appeal.

Here's the timeline in a nutshell: Janay and Ray arrested. Video of Ray dragging Janay out of elevator. NFL investigation. 2-game suspension. Outrage. New domestic abuse penalties. 2nd video released. Indefinite suspension.

Goodell claims he didn't know what happened in the elevator. He claims he didn't know the extent of the one-sidedness of the fight until the second video was leaked. Sources say, though, that even if he hadn't seen the video, both Ray was honest about what happened. Meaning Goodell had a first-hand account from the people involved, painting a pretty clear picture of what happened. He weighed that information, and made his ruling. The outrage was enough to force through new rules, but not enough to change the suspension.

Why not? Because in the absence of evidence, all the public could do was speculate about what happened. We all had a hunch, but no one except for Ray and Janay (for the part she was conscious) could actually say. Thus, the NFL had an out. They slap his wrist and hope for business to go on as usual. When it doesn't they make a show of "taking a stand" with new rules (and we'll soon see how well they stick to their guns with those). That's where this would have ended, until the second video dropped.

Suddenly, the NFL had to cover its collective asses. The Ravens cut him, arguing that they didn't imagine the scene correctly, and the NFL essentially booted him from the league, not because of what he'd done, but because what he'd done was suddenly extremely public, and they had to make sure the world knew that this was the first time they'd even heard about the incident in this way, and not, as it had been portrayed throughout the summer, as a mutual fight that just ended badly for one party.

Any way you spin that, though, extending Rice's suspension is just wrong. I don't think he should be playing this year, but the NFL collected the information, considered it, and passed judgement. To suddenly reconsider that judgement is unheard of. Imagine if your boss decided to dock your pay for being late, only docking you half the late time. Then, a couple days later, he decides to dock you an entire day, because in between the two days, the company instituted a new policy that states the late employee should be docked the full amount of time missed. You'd be furious.

Or, imagine if the justice system worked like this. The charges on which Rice was indicted carry a punishment of 3-5 years in prison. Imagine if he'd been sentenced to 3 years in prison. Then, a few weeks later, the statute is changed to make the punishment 5-10 years, and Rice is informed that his sentence has been extended to LIFE, not because new evidence showed he was guilty of some greater crime, but new evidence that corroborated his own story was presented that proved his guilt to which he'd already admitted.

So, yes, while I think his initial punishment was far too weak (essentially a tacit condoning of domestic violence), it is what we're stuck with. While the punishment should have been more severe to begin with, going back and changing it just throws the rulebook out the window. Rice and the Players' Union is right to appeal the indefinite suspension.

What is really interesting about this, though, is the ramifications this will have on Goodell. If the suspension is reduced back to the original two games, isn't that an indication that Goodell had ALL of the information back then, even if he hadn't seen the full video? The only justification for lengthening the suspension is that the video presented new evidence. The evidence, however, is mounting against the commissioner, and it might be time for him to own up to the fact that he screwed up.