Ravens Cut Ties With Ray Rice After Incident

You almost knew, in some way shape or form, this was going to happen. It was only a matter of time. We all know about what happened with Ray Rice and his fiance, now his wife, Janay Palmer in Atlantic City back in February. Before Monday, all that was known was that Rice was seen dragging an unconscious Palmer from the elevator in the hotel. How she got knocked out wasn't exactly known, but it was speculated that Rice had hit her and knocked her out. Due to this he had been suspended for 2 games by the league for this. But as time has passed, the NFL has changed their policy on domestic abuse because of this story. Now things have changed even more, and in a big way.

Early Monday, TMZ sports had gotten hold of a video from the elevator in the hotel. The video shows Rice and Janay Palmer in an elevator at an Atlantic City casino. Each hits the other before Rice knocks Palmer off her feet and into a railing. An earlier TMZ video showed Rice dragging Palmer, now his wife, from the elevator at the Revel casino, which closed Sept. 2 (ESPN). Due to this video coming to light, the Baltimore Ravens have cut Ray Rice from the team, and the NFL has come down as well, suspending Rice indefinitely. The Ravens said earlier Monday that they never saw the new video released by TMZ Sports. Hours later, they sent out a one-sentence statement: "The Baltimore Ravens terminated the contract of RB Ray Rice this afternoon." (ESPN).

Now this is a ruling that people would not only agree on, but would say that it's long overdue. Hitting a women has no place in society, it is morally wrong in all aspects. Under no circumstances, whatsoever, is it OK to strike a women. Rice should never strike his Fiance for any reason.

In regards to how the NFL handled this whole situation, it could have gone a lot better, but they did get the ruling right. When this whole story first broke, what the League and the Ravens should have done is, put Rice on suspension indefinitely until this issue was resolved. The fact that it was originally just a two game suspensions left sort of a black eye on the league, which the league tried to rectify by strengthening its policy on domestic abuse. The policy now states that for a first offense its a six game suspension and a second offense is now a lifetime ban. I think something really should have been in place before this went down. I'm just hoping that the NFL can now have a better handling of this situation, should it arise again, in the future.

Now the reason I say it should have been just an indefinite suspension is because, when the story first broke, the league didn't have the full story as to exactly what happened. You knew at some point the full story and video was going to come out to public knowledge, it was just a matter of time. I do believe that the League and the team had never seen the video before because if they had this would have been taken care of months ago. As far as the Baltimore Ravens are concerned in this matter, they handled the situation they way they should have. Once this information became public knowledge, they cut Rice, which tells me they want nothing to do with this kind of player on their football team.

Now Janay Rice, Ray's wife, has a different take on this story. She is standing behind her husband, which any good wife does, and she is going out and bashing the media for Rice getting cut. Here is a direct quote from Janay, that she posted on her Instagram account:

“I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend, but to have to accept the fact that it’s reality is a nightmare in itself. No one knows the pain that the media & unwanted options from the public has caused my family. To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret every day is a horrible thing. To take something away from the man I love that he has worked his a– of for all his life just to gain ratings is horrific. THIS IS OUR LIFE! What don’t you all get. If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels. Just know we will continue to grow & show the world what real love is! Ravensnation we love you!”

That's a direct quote from her. I'm sorry but she's wrong in this regards. The media did play a role in this story, there's no doubt about it. But the media really had nothing to do with the fact that Ray Rice was cut. Ray rice's actions in February was why Ray Rice was cut by the Ravens. The media made this story public and helped the NFL change it's policy but the media had nothing to do with Ray Rice's stupidity when he struck Janay in the elevator. that was his doing. I understand she wants to stand by her husband's side during this time, but lets be honest here, the media had nothing to do really with Rice getting cut, Rice did that to himself.

To make matters worse, I really can't see Ray Rice getting back into the NFL anytime soon. Firs the NFL has to lift his suspension. Even if the league decides to lift said suspension, in my mind, it's going to be tough for any team to try and sign him to a contract. Is there a chance that Ray Rice could be back in the NFL? Absolutely. Will it actually happen? Highly unlikely.