All the furor over the NFL's leniency with Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice now has a new target to direct their ire:
Janay Palmer.
Sports Illustrated's Monday Morning Quarterback reported that it was an impassioned speech Rice's wife delivered before NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that played a big factor in the two-game suspension for Rice that caused an uproar.
According to MMQB:
"Rice's wife, a source said, made a moving and apparently convincing case to Goodell during a June 16 hearing at Goodell's office in Manhattan-attended by Rice, GM Ozzie Newsome, club president Dick Cass of Baltimore; and Goodell, Jeff Pash and Adolpho Birch of the league-that the incident in the hotel elevator was a one-time event, and nothing physical had happened in their relationship before or since. She urged Goodell, the source said, to not ruin Rice's image and career with his sanctions."
Ray Rice ignores John Harbaugh and speaks to the media without him in attendance
MMQB went on to list other reasons that led to the relative leniency.
This was Rice's first violation of any NFL policy-personal-conduct or substance-abuse-in his six-year NFL career.
Rice was not convicted of a crime in conjunction with the incident, and the New Jersey prosecutor chose not to pursue a case against him last spring after he entered a pre-trial counseling program.
Rice has been the Ravens' leading player in volunteer work in the community. At the time of the assault, he led a Maryland anti-bullying campaign. At the Super Bowl last winter, he was part of an NFL player panel for a cable-TV anti-bullying show and spoke emotionally about needing to be vigilant on the subject.
Rice admitted his mistake soon after the incident and went into counseling.
What makes the case still so puzzling and disturbing is, with Rice's good-guy persona prior to the incident with his fiancée, how could he have possibly gotten so worked up to allow such an incident to occur?
Do you thin Ray Rice will ever have another domestic violence incident? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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