An Assholes Take on the Ray Rice Debacle

Do you take away a man’s livelihood for one mistake? How do you judge when something is bad enough to keep a man from earning money to support a family? I am not sure that the correct due process was taken when it comes to Ray Rice. Yes, domestic violence is a horrible thing but does it warrant the punishment he was given?

I want to start out by saying that in no way do I condone domestic violence. With that being said is it enough to take away a man’s livelihood? To me I don’t think so. People are allowed to make mistakes. No one is perfect. I think there should have been a suspension but I am not sure that he should have been suspended, fired, and shunned from the league. That was overkill. Worse things have happened and men have been allowed to continue to play. Yes, that’s right, I said worse. To me being investigated for murder is worse than this situation. Look, I see it like this, if his wife can forgive him for it then why can’t we? Would we like to have everyone jump on use and take everything away just because we made a mistake?

Everything was funky in this entire situation. First Rice was suspended for two games. I didn’t think it was enough and I still don’t. I would have been ok with 8 to 16 games for the suspension. Maybe even a ban from being able to play if Baltimore made it to the playoffs. I think the Ravens jumped the gun in releasing Rice too. Let due process play out. Once again, if his wife isn’t holding it against him why should he be stopped from making money?

If players are going to be dumped from the league for breaking the law then at least make it uniform across the league. Greg Hardy was convicted and is appealing his domestic violence charge and he is has a job.  He may be inactive right now but he is still able to put food on the table for his family.

I think the NFL dropped the ball here big time. Not only did they punish Ray Rice multiple times for the same offense, but they couldn’t get their own story straight after America showed outrage over it all. Roger Goodell said that Sean Payton should have known what was going on with his team during the bounty scandal, so what makes this any different than that. The NFL is Goodell’s “team” so, to use his own words, if he didn’t know what exactly was going on then he should have. Suspending Ray Rice pending an investigation into the matter would have been enough initially. Then after all the details came out you could have handed down whatever punishment you wanted. This is just the opinion of one man but I have a feeling more folks are out there that believe the same thing. The difference is, I have the balls to say it.