The NFL gives Baltimore Ravens‘ runningback Ray Rice a weak two-game suspension and missed the opportunity to send a message around the league. Really NFL?
The NFL had the opportunity to send a message around the country that assaulting women is an act which deals with a hefty penalty. The NFL suspending Rice for only two games pretty much offers a tone that they don’t care about domestic violence as much as many were led to believe.
Rice’s suspension is considered to be a joke at the least by many over social media and rightfully so when others continue to point out that Cleveland Browns‘ wide receiver Josh Gordon is suspended for a year due to his use of pot. While it can be argued that Gordon deserved his suspension because he is just that stupid to get himself in bad situations over and over again, at the end of the day there is a major flaw. When a player receives a two-game suspension due to domestic violence and another player receives a year ban for pot nothing can justify that.
The situation opens up the conversation for many to discuss pot vs. domestic violence and that shouldn’t be the argument today. The NFL had the opportunity to put away any doubt of where they stand on domestic violence. The NFL failed.
A respectable suspension for Rice would be at least be the first-eight games of the regular season. Especially considering the fact that Rice was seen on video dragging his wife out of the elevator like she was a trash bag.
The suspension leaves flaws in the NFL’s personal conduct policy and each flaw needs to be examined immediately. It understandable that the policies set in place are by the book. The book needs to written again.
With all of that being said, the NFL can try and punish Rice for as many games as they want. The bigger task for Rice at the moment is repairing his image. Unfortunately for Rice his image may never be repaired among the eyes of many.