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Ray Rice Knockout Punch Ends NFL Career
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell indefinitely suspended Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice yesterday, after video footage of him cold-cocking his then fiance in an elevator with a knock out punch went viral. However, Goodell didn’t suspend Rice because he saw the videotape — he suspended Rice because WE saw the videotape!
The gruesome video footage of Ray Rice punching his fiance (now wife) inside an elevator at the Revel Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City this past February has now been seen around the world. Janay Palmer was knocked out cold and Rice had to physically drag her limp body off the elevator upon reaching their floor. Â It was a brutal sight.
Commissioner Goodell originally suspended Rice for only 2 days, believing the incident was in the past and would blow over. However, he didn’t count on the videotape going viral and everyone on the planet seeing the “Mike Tyson-style” punch that put Palmer to sleep. Players have received harsher punishments for doing much less, so the measly 2 day suspension was a terrible joke and one that forced Goodell to rethink the original suspension.
Yesterday, the Baltimore Ravens terminated Rice’s $35 million dollar contract. Since the NFL suspended Rice indefinitely, he is not eligible to play for any other team.
The Internet has been abuzz for the past 24 hours regarding Rice’s brutality. Â However, blame has come down on a variety of heads.
Naturally, Rice was blamed for punching out a woman. The NFL was blamed for their unbelievably light 2 day suspension. However, Janay Palmer was also called into blame across the web.
Palmer was engaged to Rice when he knocked her out cold inside the elevator. Â However, she went the extra step and actually MARRIED this woman-beater sometime after the incident, causing women and men online to scratch their heads and wonder what in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks was she thinking??
I don’t know Ray Rice or Janay Palmer, but I can come up with 35 million reasons why she probably stayed with him!
OK WASSUP! tracks the top news today,
including video footage of Ray Rice punching his fiance,
effectively ending his professional football career.
"I don't know Ray Rice or Janay Palmer, but I can come up with 35 million reasons why she probably stayed with him."
Could not AGREE with you more DJ.
And that's just One of what I see as a growing list of very disturbing factors related to this entire sorry story.
IMO, Ray Rice and Janay (Palmer) Rice, Atlantic County Prosecutor, Roger Goodell, the Ravens owner, GM and coach Harbaugh, ALL of them, are responsible for this collosal mess and EPIC FAIL.
Btw: The notion that neither the NFL nor the Ravens could get their hands on the full video that TMZ was somehow able to get!?!….is absurd on its face.
And I have to say now that I do agree with those who say "this may be the beginning of the end" of Goodell as Commissioner of the NFL.
Hey good morning Truth, you beat me to it. Keith Olbermann is already saying this whole thing was a cover up and Goodall needs to resign.
[youtube Fh1x1-Z91sU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh1x1-Z91sU youtube]
And as a Black American female let me just say this….
Would this situation have been handled differently from the very beginning IF the woman in that video, knocked unconscious in the elevator, by a Black Male NFL player, …THEN dragged out of that elevator and left laying on the floor of that hotel had been WHITE?
You're darn skippy it would have!
Good Morning BD.
And adding insult to injury (no pun intended)
This morning TMZ is reporting that the reason Goodell can make the claim that he hadn't seen the full video until yesterday is because he "NEVER" asked the hotel for it.
That's right. the Commissioner of the NFL, a "9 Billion" dollar business enterprise, armed to the teeth "with former FBI agents and Secret Service personnel among their investigative body" could NOT even bother to request the video TMZ got and released to the public!?!
And I'm guessing the same Willful ignorance and Gross incompetence is true for the Ravens(?) .
Besides Ray Rice, other heads need to roll.
This is about to snowball. Goodell and a few others are gonna need to step down.
As I've already expressed – Janay Rice shares a great deal of responsibility for this mess also!
ESPN: Janay Rice defending her husband and criticizing the media:
I woke up this morning, feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I'm mourning the death of my closest friend," Janay Rice wrote in an Instagram post. "But to have to accept the fact that it's reality is a nightmare itself. No one know the pain that the media & unwanted options from the public has caused my family. To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret everyday is a horrible thing.
To take something away from the man I love that he has worked his ass off for all his life just to gain ratings is horrific. THIS IS OUR LIFE! What don't you all get. If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happines away, you've succeeded on so many levels. Just know you've succeeded on so many levels. Just know we will continue to grow & show the world what real love is! Ravensnation we love you! [….]
Pitiful.
No Truth what she means is cutting him from the team is taking away her gravy train. If he's not on the team then she's not getting paid. Him hitting her in a elevator has nothing to do with love.
Yes. I get it BD. And I agree with you. She is angry about "not getting paid."
But IMO, that's what makes her just as responsible (if not moreso) as Ray Rice for this mess.
I'd wager the elevator incident probably AIN'T the first time Ray has knocked her lights out.
His behavior on the elevator AFTER he hit her strongly indicates to me that he's probably beat on her before.
And together, their behavior, since the incident, has been quite disturbing, to say the least.
I think they both need help!
This story is getting weirder by the minute. Now the wife is blaming the media for her husband kicking her ass?????
Well, no …not quite.
She's actually blaming the media for costing her husband his job after the release of a video showing him "kicking her ass" and then dragging her unconscious body off the elevator.
You really can't make some of this stuff up…smh.
BREAKING NEWS – Wed. Sept. 10th at about 6 pm EST
AP Reports: Rice video was sent to NFL Exec in April
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A law enforcement official says he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée to an NFL executive five months ago, while league executives have insisted they didn't see the violent images until this week.
The person played The Associated Press a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number on April 9 confirming the video arrived. A female voice expresses thanks and says: "You're right. It's terrible."
The law enforcement official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, says he had no further communication with any NFL employee and can't confirm anyone watched the video. The person said he was unauthorized to release the video but shared it unsolicited because he wanted the NFL to have it before deciding on Rice's punishment. […..]
H/T: ESPN
IF this is true(?)…then Goodell AND his bosses (NFL owners) are beyond despicable. He, and they, are rotten to the core!
He works FOR THEM. He answers TO THEM. And I don't buy for a minute that this collssal ishtstorm is only of his own making.
I told ya this was gonna snowball. Goodell is as good as gone.
"Goodell is as good as gone."
I had the same thought too Mike…UNTIL yesterday when the new info broke. As I stated above, I don't buy for a minute that this collossal ishtstorm is solely of Goodlell's own making. Goodell's bosses call the shots. He works for them.
SBNation Reader:
Never have I seen such a finely tuned PR machine fail so incredibly. Which tilts the likely reason for it from ineptitude to something much darker, I fear. […]
You're darn skippy!
I don't think there's any question that Somebody (an underling) associated with the NFL received and viewed the tape(s) months ago. Goodell didn't view the tape because he was ordered NOT to view the tapes. Why else would his bosses be standing "even stronger" with him today AFTER this latest news than they were before, as per ESPN reports this morning!?!
HuffPost Reader:
This is looking more and more like Sandusky level denial from the corporate heads of the NFL. […]
Uh-huh. And just like in the Sandusky case, these good OLD (Billionaire) NFL boyz NEVER expected this cover-up to eventually BLOW-UP in their faces!
ESPN:
NEW YORK — Former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III will conduct a probe into how the NFL handled evidence as it investigated domestic violence claims against former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in a statement Wednesday that the investigation will be overseen by NFL owners John Mara of the New York Giants and Art Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Mueller, who was the director of the FBI for 12 years, will have access to all NFL records.
Mueller, based in Washington, D.C., is currently a partner in the law firm of WilmerHale, which helped negotiate the NFL's Sunday Ticket package with DirecTV. The firm also has represented Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, and several former members of the firm have taken positions with NFL teams.
Mara and Rooney are members of key NFL committees and have closely advised Goodell throughout his tenure. [….]