Alright everyone, it’s about time I take a break from sharing my favorite music with you, and actually “sound off” about a tragic current event in the NFL that has everyone talking. Although I love having fun sharing music trivia, this is a very serious issue that needs to be discussed.
    Unless you are living under a rock like that guy in the Geico commercial, I’m sure you are well aware that the Baltimore Ravens recently cut star running back Ray Rice after a video was released, clearly showing him beating his then-fiancé and now-wife Janay Rice. Please, don’t think I’m about to advocate that Rice should still be in the league; he’s a terrible person for performing such an action. I believe that NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell should step down from his position because of how poorly he and his office handled this situation.
    Let’s start from the beginning. This all started at the end of July this year when Goodell suspended Ray Rice for the first two games of the season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. Rice had been charged with third-degree aggravated assault for allegedly striking his wife unconscious in an Atlantic City elevator on February 15. At the time, a video had leaked showing Rice dragging his unconscious wife out of an elevator. It was pretty clear what had happened, despite not being able to see the actual altercation. Rice pled not guilty for the offense and was accepted into a pretrial intervention program to avoid jail time. Janay Rice continuously defended her husband, saying she loves him and they are in a happy relationship. We thought the issue had subsided, Rice would serve his suspension, and the NFL season would continue normally.
    But then a chain of events happened that shaped into one of the biggest controversies in NFL history. The public outcry had already begun, with many saying it was obvious that Rice had assaulted his wife, and that the running back should have received a harsher sentence by the NFL. And many fans compared this issue to another NFL player facing punishment for violating a different league policy: substance abuse.
    It was revealed shortly after the first day of this year’s NFL Draft that star wide receiver of the Cleveland Browns, Josh Gordon, had recently failed a drug test because of marijuana in his system. Gordon had appealed the violation and was facing a potential year-long suspension. Yes; smoking marijuana gets you banned for a year in the NFL, but beating your wife unconscious is only a two-game punishment. The public was furious because clearly this logic didn’t make any sense. The NFL’s official reasoning was that Gordon was punished accordingly by the league’s drug policy. He had failed a drug test both last year and while playing at college, and under specific rules of the NFL Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse, that meant his next violation would be a full year suspension. Goodell said the league did not have an official domestic abuse policy to punish Rice by, but failed to convey to the public why a two-game suspension was reasonable for a wife beater.
    Amazingly, there was still hope that Goodell could still save face in this situation. The Josh Gordon issue had not yet been resolved and there was a possibility of him even playing the entire season.  However, nearly one month after the Ray Rice suspension, it was reported that Gordon’s appeal on his one-year suspension would be upheld. The public went nuts once again, but with Rice avoiding jail time and his wife publicly defending him, there wasn’t much we could do but call it a regular Goodell mishap.  
    Then the video surfaced. You know the one.
    Internet tabloid website TMZ released a video kept hidden by the state of New Jersey that showed the full altercation in the elevator between the loving couple. Rice struck his wife not once, but twice in the face, with the second hit knocking her unconscious (if you get queasy at all, I highly suggest you not watch this video, but if you are curious, you can view it online). Rice was promptly released from the Baltimore Ravens, and suspended from the NFL indefinitely.
    Wait, what? This is the same exact altercation that earned him a two-game suspension, right? Any hope of Roger Goodell and the NFL saving face in this situation vanished.
    The official statement from Goodell was that there was no way anyone could access the video by legal means.  However, there were conflicting reports that the video inside the elevator had in fact been sent to the league’s office. The fiasco became a he said-she said argument, but many in the public and media still damned the NFL for not even trying to obtain the video through illegitimate means. According to some members of the media, the NFL has several law enforcement connections and absolutely had the opportunity to view the video if they wanted to. The league even completely revised its drug policy in the past couple of weeks, allowing previously suspended players such as Josh Gordon to play at least a few games of the season, but that still was clearly a notion of trying to save face. Whether the NFL saw the second video or not honestly doesn’t matter, because the league made its biggest mistake at the beginning of this incident.
    Ray Rice should have been released and suspended indefinitely from the NFL as soon as the first video released, showing him dragging his unconscious wife out of an elevator.
    The first video proved an altercation had occurred, and Rice should have absolutely had a much longer punishment than just two games solely by that video. I’ll admit that the public is a bit at fault as well. The negativity towards the league wasn’t strong at all, nor was the situation a current event topic until the second video was released. But I guess the first video wasn’t enough proof to most. I understand there are plenty of people playing in the NFL right now who have had their own legal issues (even offenses serious enough as murder and animal abuse), but these are separate issues that would require every page of this newspaper to discuss. Ray Rice does not deserve to play in this league right now.
    This seriously is one of the most tragic stories in the NFL. I attended Rutgers University at the same time as Ray Rice, who was an up-and-coming local star. Rice’s father was killed when he was just one year old, and his mother Janet raised him and his three other siblings on her own. His success was an inspiration, especially when his running prowess brought the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team into the spotlight. The success story continued, as Rice was taken in the second round of the NFL draft and quickly became a star on the Baltimore Ravens. He was a hero to many and a strong voice in the anti-bullying campaign. It was almost a picture-perfect NFL success story. But two quick punches brought it all to a screeching halt.