Twistity Sports Exclusive: RICE REDUX

 
And how, exactly, did we all figure Janay Rice had become unconscious in that elevator?

Now that we’ve seen what Ray Rice did, we are all appropriately horrified. Perhaps not because he did it – we knew he’d done something violent – but because we’ve seen it.

Imagined vs. real.

Rice, the Baltimore Ravens running back, had already been suspended two games by the NFL for his part in “domestic violence” in May. With the emergence of video previously unseen (or so the NFL and the Ravens say) from that Atlantic City casino elevator, the story went electric. The NFL suspended Rice indefinitely, the Ravens released him and this tale went viral in an epidemic way.

There will be more. Can TMZ prove the NFL and/or the Ravens knew more than they acknowledged when first they issued their tepid responses? That will make life uglier for a league that suspends pot smokers for a month and batterers for two weeks.

There’s nothing for anyone to be proud of here. Nothing.

The Ravens held a news conference on Monday, but sent only the coach out to address the dismissal of Rice. Where were top club officials? The owner? Very bad.

The NFL, which recently changed its punishments for perpetrators of domestic violence, employs FBI agents in its security department, but could not get access to this video? Very bad. Atlantic City allowed Rice into a diversion program instead of prosecuting? Very bad. And Janay Rice, a battered spouse before she even married, accepted blame for her part in Elevator Night (which was absorbing a left hook that knocked her out) and now rails against the media for picking on her and her unemployed (and maybe unemployable) husband. Very bad.

Nothing is private. Everything is on video. A CEO recently lost his job because of elevator video of him kicking his dog. Maybe the dog is the hero in all of this. The dog has neither accepted blame for its part in the incident, hasn’t signed a book contract, and has not blamed the media for the failings of its owner.

Today’s question: What role should the NFL play in punishing players (and coaches and owners) when they run afoul of the law? How much is too much (or not enough)? Answers in the comment box, please.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .