After Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice received a two-game ban by the National Football League on Thursday for physically assaulting Janay Palmer, angry fans took to social media proclaiming the punishment was too lenient. Most of the responses called on NFL officials to stiffen the penalty.
The league responded to the outcries on Monday and confirmed that it will not make any changes to Rice's punishment.
NFL executive struggles to defend Ray Rice's two-game suspension: https://t.co/nKs3S2famy pic.twitter.com/fsuaXmpS5k
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 28, 2014
"Listen, I think if you are any player and you think that based on this decision that it's OK to go out and commit that kind of conduct, I think that is something that I would suggest to you that no player is going to go out and do that," NFL senior vice president of labor policy Adolpho Birch said during an interview on ESPN Radio's 'Mike and Mike' morning program, according to ESPN.com.
"So in terms of sending a message about what the league stands for, we've done that. We can talk about the degree of discipline, we can talk about whether or not third parties need to be involved. I would suggest to you that a third party has been involved in this matter and that was the court that reviewed it, the prosecutor [who] reviewed it.
"But if it is a question about what the principle of the league is and what standards we stand by, that cannot be questioned. I think it is absolutely clear to all involved that the NFL does not condone domestic violence in any way and will not tolerate it in our league. I don't know how you can reach a conclusion other than that although I certainly respect the opinion."
The suspension stems from a February incident in which Rice allegedly assaulted Palmer, who was his fiancee at the time. Rice and Palmer have since married.
A video posted by TMZSports, showed Rice removing Palmer from a hotel elevator in Atlantic City, N.J. Palmer can be seen laying on the floor and appears unconscious.
A grand jury later indicted Rice on a charge of third-degree aggravated assault. Shortly thereafter, Rice entered a not-guilty plea to the charge. He enrolled in a pretrial intervention program in May, allowing him to avoid jail time.
During the two-game suspension Rice will lose more than $450,000 in base salary.
"The discipline that was taken by the NFL is the only discipline that occurred, with respect to Mr. Rice, in this case," Birch said. "I think that, were he not an NFL player, I don't know that he would be able to receive any punishment from any other source.
"On balance, we reviewed all the materials, listened to the persons we listened to, took the input of the Players Association. When we looked on balance at all of that, we believe that discipline we issued is appropriate. It is multiple games and hundreds of thousands of dollars. I think that's fair to say that doesn't reflect that you condone the behavior. I think we can put that to rest."
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