Every Day that goes by, the The NFL, Roger Goodell, The Ravens, Their Owner, General Manager, and Head coach all look more and more like bumbling idiot liars. Every time they open their mouth about the Ray Rice incident they contradict each other or themselves..... pathetic. The Ravens were the first to act on the Ray Rice situation on Monday, cutting the running back after TMZ released a video of him punching his wife. The Ravens hadnt discussed the issue, and strangely sent coach John Harbaugh out to speak for the organization on Monday while owner Steve Bisciotti, president Dick Cass and general manager Ozzie Newsome stayed far away from commenting. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league suspended Rice because his account was not consistent with what the video showed. Presumably, that was the Ravens reason too, but we didnt know because their brass was in hiding. Then Bisciotti, Cass and Newsome spoke to the Baltimore Sun on Wednesday, and Newsome said no, Rice told them what happened and thats what the tape showed. Sun: Did the video match the story Ray Rice told you? You know. Ray had given a story to John [Harbaugh] and I, Newsome said. And what we saw on the video was what Ray said. Ray didn’t lie to me. He didn’t lie to me.” That certainly goes against the presumed narrative, that the Ravens and NFL had to take serious action against Rice after it saw the video, because something more happened on the surveillance video than they were told, and they were misled by Rice. But Newsome said, pretty clearly, that Rice told them exactly what was on the video. So why not cut Rice when it happened, other than succumbing to public pressure? Cass follow-up to Newsomes quote didnt give a great answer to that. “There’s a big difference between reading a report that says he knocked her unconscious or being told that someone had slapped someone and that she had hit her head, Cass said. That is one version of the facts. That’s what we understood to be the case. When you see the video, it just looks very different than what we understood the facts to be.” Or, as the general manager said, its exactly the same as Rice told them. A major question this week has been why the Ravens and NFL needed the full video to take the actions they did. It was hardly disputed that there was a domestic violence incident in which Rice knocked out his then-fiancee. You generally dont need a video to let you know thats a terrible act. The Sun asked Cass why the team didnt release Rice after the police report said he knocked his then-fiancée unconscious: “There was no discussion, Cass said. When it’s a player misconduct, there’s a protocol that the league has followed for over 20 years now. And the protocol basically is the team involved generally collects information about the incident. But if it’s a criminal misconduct issue, there’s no discipline generally imposed until the criminal proceeding is finished. That’s the protocol that we followed in this case as well. We collected information as best as we could but we really were waiting until the criminal proceeding was over to decide what to do. There would have been no precedent that I’m aware of where you’d take an established player – a player who had been with you for six years, had been a model citizen, a terrific player, had built up enormous good will in this building and in this community – to terminate a player when he had been charged with simple assault. Perhaps Rice lied to the NFL but told the truth to Newsome and Harbaugh, if Newsomes quote is accurate. Maybe Newsome will backtrack off what he said, or its still left unanswered why the video caused the Ravens to release Rice if he told them everything that was on it. The Ravens organization went out of its way to support Rice this offseason. If you want to be cynical, its easy to guess that the Ravens and NFL figured the entire situation would pass over after Rices two-game suspension was served. And it likely would have, if the video hadnt been released by TMZ on Monday. The backlash over the incident this week has caused everyone to look closer at the process the team and league took in Rices too-lenient suspension, and nobody is looking all that good as more details come out.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:09:43 +0000
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