Ray Rice: A Slap on the Wrist

Knock out a women = two game suspension. Smoke marijuana = four game suspension. Makes perfect sense right? No. Was the NFL too soft on Ray Rice who knocked out his wife in an elevator? There was even video footage on Ray Rice dragging his wife out the elevator. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought Ray Rice got a slap on the wrist with this two game suspension. I guess domestic violence is less punishable than smoking marijuana according to Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL.

Goodell defended the light punishment on Ray Rice. He said Ray Rice was suspended two games for violating the leagues personal conduct policy. He didn't really go into details but mentioned how Ray Rice felt bad about it. Well then, if I feel bad about a mistake can it be undone? Remember the Ben Roethlisberger incident? He was initially suspended six games for getting accused of sexual assault. It was reduced to four games after the appeal and even though he was never charged of a crime, he had to serve the suspension. Where is consistency here? Roger Goodell's defense of this Ray Rice suspension makes absolutely no sense to me.

Recently at an open practice, Ray Rice was cheered for loudly when he was on the jumbotron. Sure, it's okay to cheer for him as a player, but it seemed like the fans were cheering for him loudly because of the "tough times" he was going through. Had he not done that to his wife, I doubt he gets as big an ovation as he did. Some fans were not pleased with the cheering and voiced their opinion. The one that stood out to me from @thefootballgirl was "Too bad the Rice elevator footage didn't accidentally make its way to the Jumbotron at Ravens camp. Would fans have cheered then?". She makes a very good point here. Ray Rice's suspension is a joke and Roger Goodell still doesn't realize it. It was a chance for him to send a message across the NFL that domestic violence will not be tolerated and he failed.

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Alan Liang is a senior Drexel Sport Management major with minors in Marketing and Business Administration from West Windsor, NJ. Alan scores baseball games for Baseball Info Solutions and is currently on co-op with the Philadelphia 76ers in the camps department. Follow Alan on Twitter @AlanLiang29. 

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