Mackenzie Hurlbert – Managing Editor
In February of this year, Ray Rice was caught on video dragging his unconscious fiancé –now wife—out of a casino elevator after knocking her out with a punch. Weeks later, the video is released, but not in full—the public only saw a clip of Rice dragging his fiancé’s limp body out of the elevator and into the lobby. What actually happened in the elevator was up to our imagination.
At first, he was reprimanded with a trifling two-game suspension. Many people, including myself, felt the suspension was incredibly light considering drug-users are suspended at least four games. Here was someone physically hurting someone else, yet he got a lighter suspension than a player testing positive for marijuana… how does that equate?
Nonetheless, after the two-game suspension and a mild uproar about domestic violence, the waves settled and Rice faded into the shadows of the spotlight. This week, however, the release of the full video from his elevator incident caused greater turbulence as fans, teammates, and others saw with their own eyes the punch that left Janay Rice unconscious and sprawled on the floor of a casino elevator. Rice’s punishment was then determined by the NFL: He was to be cut from the Ravens and suspended indefinitely from the NFL.
As a Ravens fan, I was taken aback by the sudden change in punishment. I had not watched the video and thought the jump from a two-game suspension to an end to Rice’s career was extreme. If the two-game suspension was for hitting his wife, what else did he do to deserve a ruined career in the NFL? And then I watched the video. I saw how Rice’s fist connected with Janay Rice’s face and how she slumped to the floor.
Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell have both denied seeing the video prior to this week. They say their excuse for not demanding to see the video earlier was because it would have been illegal for the casino to release it, but Bisciotti regrets backing off and wishes he had applied more pressure.
“I regret that we didn’t keep up with it,” said Bisciotti in a CNN interview about pursuing the video.
After seeing the video, I realized it wasn’t the fact that Rice cold-clocked his wife that got him suspended – it was the fact that we saw him do it. Before the footage was leaked, we were fine giving him a two game suspension, a perfect example of “out of sight, out of mind.” The video footage changed our whole perception of the abuse. We could no longer create excuses for him or defend the action with “what-if’s.” The act was plain, simple and needlessly violent: he abused his wife and we witnessed it.
And I’d love to say the NFL reacted so severely because of the abuse, but that’s just not the truth. They reacted because of the bad press and because Ray Rice will forevermore be known as “that Ravens player who cold-clocked his wife.” The NFL and the Ravens don’t want to be associated with that negative publicity. They’d rather drop him than carry the association of supporting wife-beaters. I don’t blame them, but I do find it sad knowing that they were fine giving him a two-game suspension when their own reputations weren’t on the line. Now that they face the threat of bad press, it’s every man, player, and wife-beater for themselves – see ya Ray Rice.
“I’m glad they increased the severity of his punishment,” said Ross McCain, a University of Hartford student, “Even though it should’ve been harsher from the beginning.”
Joe McCarthy, a Southern graduate, also weighed in on the scandal. “His behavior was deplorable and the NFL’s initial response was far too weak to discourage domestic violence in the future,” said McCarthy. “Plus, he’s a figure of national influence. By receiving a harsh penalty, the scope of domestic violence in this country might be influenced.”
What’s even more ridiculous than a two-game suspension for domestic abuse was omitting the Jay-Z and Rihanna song at the Ravens-Steelers game this past Thursday. Why? Because she’s a victim of domestic abuse. It bothers me because I believe her song should be played because she’s a survivor of domestic abuse. She shouldn’t be associated with the shameful side of domestic violence as Rice is, but instead, she should represent the strong, prideful truth of being a survivor. Why sweep her under a rug or pull a curtain over her past? Why omit her song for something that was outside of her control? We all know Ray Rice beat his wife, so why bother changing a playlist over it?
Domestic violence is real. It is an issue in everyday life, and omitting a song from a playlist or hiding a video of violence is not going to make it better. The violence still happened, and it happens every day around the world. Unfortunately Janay Rice and Rihanna are just two of the many survivors out there, and no publicity-based-NFL-suspension or song omission is going to make domestic violence better. The only way to confront domestic violence is to stop it by creating a hatred for it – by making it so taboo and so despised by society that future aggressors know they face more than a two-game suspension or a slap on the wrist for knocking out their wives in casino elevators.
Photo Credit: Jeff Weese
