Ray Rice: Why a two game suspension misses the mark

Whoever said justice is blind has clearly never heard of the National Football League.

In the NFL, if you get caught taking Adderall without a prescription it’s an automatic four game suspension. If you get caught with marijuana — automatic four game suspension. PED’s? Four game suspension. There’s even been talk about making a DUI arrest an automatic four game suspension.

But if you’re Ray Rice, and you get charged with assaulting your fiancee in Atlantic City — complete with security camera footage of you dragging the unconscious woman’s body from a hotel elevator — you only get a two game suspension.

The inconsistency here is staggering.

“The league is an entity that depends on integrity and in the confidence of the public, and we simply cannot tolerate conduct that endangers others or reflects negatively on our game,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to Rice. “This is particularly true with respect to domestic violence and other forms of violence against women.”

But for a man who claims to be concerned with how things “reflect” on the league he runs, Goodell sure seems blind to the perception that will come from his especially light-handed sentencing of Rice. Because, despite his claims to the contrary, as of this morning it sure looks like the NFL is infinitely more concerned with competitive balance than they are with violence against women.

Well, at least twice as concerned. And given the public nature of this incident — that’s troubling.

Now, the folks that want to defend the suspension will be quick to point out that Rice went into a pre-trial intervention program and was not actually found guilty of the assault charge leveled against him.

But when has that ever mattered before?

Though there are numerous examples, let’s go with one of the more well-known ones:

In 2010 Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault. It was not the first accusation made against him, but it also didn’t result in an arrest or any charges. Still, Goodell — while invoking the need to ‘protect the league’s image’ — suspended Roethlisberger for six games (though it was later reduced to four).

“The Personal Conduct Policy makes clear that I may impose discipline ‘even where the conduct does not result in conviction of a crime,'” Goodell wrote to Roethlisberger in 2010. “The Personal Conduct Policy also states that discipline is appropriate for conduct that ‘undermines or puts at risk the integrity and reputation of the NFL, NFL clubs, or NFL players.’ By any measure, your conduct satisfies that standard.”

And Rice’s didn’t? At least not to the degree Big Ben’s did?

Nobody here is trying to defend Roethlisberger — it was an extremely ugly incident. But the preponderance of evidence was also considerably lower. There were accusations made, but no videotape. It was a huge black-eye for the league, it made the media rounds — Goodell was justified to do what he did — but at no point was there ever anything so damning as the video that made the rounds on the national news when Rice was seen dragging that unconscious woman’s body across the threshold of an elevator.

So why isn’t Goodell abiding the same standard he set with Roethlisberger four years ago?

If Goodell’s biggest initiative is to protect the image of the league, it’s hard to understand how clear-cut evidence of violence against a woman — violence that was broadcast nationally and resulted in an arrest and charges — is only one-third as serious as the accusations against Roethlisberger.

But that’s essentially what the NFL is saying with this suspension. Hard evidence of actual violence against a woman — something Goodell has railed against time and time again — is only one-third as serious as accusations of it. Hard evidence of actual violence against a woman is only about 40% as serious as trading your jersey for tattoos in college (a la Terrelle Pryor). Hard evidence of actual violence against a woman is only half as serious as PED use, or smoking weed, or taking Adderall to stay awake in team meetings.

Nobody begrudges the NFL for penalizing heavily when they feel competitive balance is at stake. It makes sense, it helps their financial interests — I applaud the practice.

But please, let’s stop with the piety and the lip-service in regard to everything else. If you’re not willing to punish violence against women more severely than PED use (or college indiscretions), that’s your prerogative, but then let’s stop with all the BS about protecting the shield. Stop telling us how you won’t tolerate violence against women or behavior that embarrasses the league. Stop trying to be a moral authority. Because when push comes to shove — you’re not.

Actions speak louder than words, and right now nobody’s words ring more hollow than Roger Goodell and  — by extension — the NFL’s.