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Ray Rice knew this day would come; the NFL should have too

THIS is a story absent heroes, absent anyone to whom we can point and say, “Well done.” The NFL got it wrong, and current and ex-players agree.

Mike Vaccaro New York PostNew York Post
3 min read
September 9, 2014 - 12:01PM
Ray Rice
Ray Rice

THINK about Ray Rice for a second. There were two people, and only two, who knew what happened in the elevator that night from the moment it happened:

Janay Palmer, his then-fiancee, now-wife, who was hit hard enough that she fell against the wall and onto the floor.

SEE WHAT CURRENT AND EX — NFL PLAYERS THINK ABOUT RAY RICE BELOW

And Ray Rice. The one who threw the punch.

The person who — if we choose to believe his remorseful words after the fact, if we take at face value the propaganda issued on his behalf that this was a stunning lapse of character from a lifetime of good behaviour — had to wonder, all this time, “When are they going to find out?”

When will they see the video?

Remember this: The assault happened in a casino. There isn’t a thing that happens in a casino that isn’t preserved on camera, including in the elevators. So even if we want to believe that neither the Ravens nor the NFL saw what the rest of the world saw Monday — Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee, now-wife in February at the since-shuttered Revel hotel in Atlantic City — there are two questions that beg to be asked:

Why in the world would the NFL — whose security employees have all previously worked in the big leagues of federal and international law enforcement — not have demanded seeing what it had to know was a smoking gun, one way or the other, before rendering any kind of judgment?

And why would the Atlantic County prosecutor, Jim McClain, accept Rice’s request to enter a pre-trial intervention program in May that could expunge the third-degree aggravated assault charge within a year, if he had seen the video?

And then there is Rice, who perhaps has been an elite athlete long enough to simply believe this was the way of the world, who has been coddled from college to believe he is above regular rules and regulations, who maybe saw nothing at all off with the way the Ravens all but fell over themselves defending him. Or with the way Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, decided two games was all that was warranted for what everybody did know — that he dragged Palmer out of that elevator.

Or with the way Palmer herself found it necessary to apologise for her “role” in the incident — which is like the nail apologising to the hammer — which was still prominently part of the Ravens’ official Twitter account as of Monday afternoon. He saw all of this happen. And he knew what he’d done. He was there. Even if a camera hadn’t been, his conscience was.

“I know that’s not who I am as a man,” Rice had said, trying to explain away the inexplicable, “I let so many people down because of 30 seconds of my life that can’t get back,” and if he truly felt that way, if he truly believed that, then he also had to be wondering in the front of his mind, not the fringes: When are they going to find out?

Turns out, it was Monday, and it turns out it was TMZ that forced the issue, ultimately forced the Ravens — which had allowed their PR director to pen an embarrassing “I like Ray Rice” defence on their website — to do the right thing and release Rice.

And it was only after that that Goodell — who received so much criticism for his soft earlier penalty, stiffening the NFL’s domestic abuse policy on the fly — suspended him indefinitely.

This is a story absent heroes, absent anyone to whom we can point and say, “Well done.” The Ravens enabled Rice endlessly — and mindlessly — and only did the right thing when it became clear there was no other recourse.

The NFL? It is only the latest fiasco engineered by Goodell, whose very competence as a leader has to be called into question now. The prosecutor? Good luck explaining this to your community.

And, of course, Ray Rice. From the moment he threw that punch in February, he had to know. He had to understand: Someone will find out. Someone will see. Maybe he was blinded by the lifetime scholarship too many athletes are given. Not anymore. Now even he has to see. Someone found out.

CURRENT AND EX-NFL PLAYERS SPEAK OUT

Terrance Knighton, Denver Broncos

LeCharles Bentley, Former NFL Centre

Duke Ihenacho, Washington

Brady Quinn, Former NFL Quarterback

London Fletcher, Former NFL linebacker

Chris Canty, former Ravens teammate

Chris Harris, Denver Broncos

Originally published as Ray Rice knew this day would come; the NFL should have too

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