Blogger 365 Day 251 - Ricecapades

     So it comes to this, Ray Rice has been cut by the Baltimore Ravens and subsequently suspended indefinitely by the NFL.   Let's go all Peabody and Sherman and do a way back thing here.

     The story begins when Ray Rice caught dragging his unconscious girlfriend (now his wife) from an elevator in a casino in Atlantic City.  The NFL and local prosecutors naturally investigate the matter.  The local prosecutors allow Ray Rice to enter a pre trial domestic violence program, thereby avoiding a trial.  The NFL, lead by commissioner Roger Goodell, as part of their investigation, meet with Rice's girlfriend (with Ray Rice in the room) and decide to suspend Ray Rice for a total of two games in the upcoming NFL season, a suspension that is met with a large amount of derision given how the league has handed down punishments in the past for violations which are arguably far less severe.

    Then last week Goodell admits that perhaps he got the Ray Rice punishment wrong, and that in the future the league will punish players who commit acts of domestic violence with a 6 game suspension for the first offense and a second offense will result in being permanently banned from the league.

     Within the last 24 hours though, TMZ has released a video of what happened inside the elevator, which consists of Ray Rice unloading on his girlfriend with a left hook and knocking her unconscious.  Here is the video goodness (or badness in this case)......



     Now anyone conducting any sort of competent investigation would have had access to this video.  when it comes to a casino, there are very few places that are not monitored by cameras, as anyone with half a brain would know.  If the local prosecutors wanted this video, they certainly would have had legal access to obtain it.  Likewise if the NFL or the Baltimore Ravens wanted access to this video, it would not have been all that hard to obtain.  So either the legal prosecutors and the NFL were incredibly inept or were content to keep their heads in the sand, or they did see the video and all of this has been a coverup.  Neither theory does well for those whose job it was to ascertain what actually happened.  It is a level of incompetence that for most of us would result in our termination.

     So far what has actually happened.  Ray Rice is technically out of a job, though whether that will be permanent remains to be seen.  A team may take a chance on offering him a contract in the hope that his indefinite suspension from the league is not a permanent one, though whatever team would make such a move would commit a PR nightmare.  And the people who were responsible for looking into the matter to determine what happened?  They all are still happily employed, because to them protecting people