The Baltimore Ravens announced they will honor former running back Ray Rice as a “Legend of the Game,” sparking controversy due to his past. Rice ‘legendarily’ was involved in a domestic violence incident with his then-fiancée Janay Palmer in 2014. A video surfaced showing Rice punching Palmer and dragging the unconscious woman out of an elevator in an Atlantic City casino.
As shocking as the Ray Rice’s domestic violence incident was, equally as shocking was the fact that the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL initially tried to cover it up. Prior to the video being released by TMZ, the Ravens handed Rice a mere two-game suspension.
An investigation into the NFL’s handling of the Rice assault case revealed, according to the New York Times, that “the league was aware of the nature of the altercation but chose not to aggressively pursue additional information.”
In other words, we know it’s bad so don’t tell us about it. Only after the video came out did the NFL decide to suspend Rice indefinitely. Warning: The security footage is difficult to watch.
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Ray Rice: From Woman Beater To Legend Of The Game
The controversy around Ray Rice and his actions seems to have subsided in the nine years since he knocked his girlfriend out with a vicious left hook.
Palmer, the woman on the receiving end of the punch, would marry Rice later that same year. Even as he was indicted for third-degree aggravated assault. The criminal charges were later dropped after Rice agreed to undergo court-supervised counseling.
Still, it’s one of the few incidents of domestic violence by an NFL player actually captured on camera. There is no denying what Ray Rice did.
Now, apparently, the Ravens have decided it’s time to move on. Rice will be recognized as a “Legend of the Game,” an honor the team gives to former players for their on- and off-field accomplishments, in their Sunday matchup against the Miami Dolphins.
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The NFL’s Continuing Domestic Violence Problem
The honoring of Ray Rice as a “Legend of the Game” has caused a rift on social media. By all accounts, the former Ravens running back has righted the ship and is an ambassador teaching young boys and men about domestic violence.
But some crimes are irredeemable, and punching a woman in the face, you would think, would be one of them.
If anything, the news should spark a conversation once again within the NFL about domestic violence. The problem persists.
Buffalo Bills linebacker Von Miller was arrested last month and faces a charge of third-degree felony assault of a pregnant woman. He insists the allegations of domestic violence are false.
Two other notable cases from this past year involved Zac Stacy, a former running back, and Drew Ogletree, a tight end for the Indianapolis Colts. Both were arrested on domestic violence charges.
Stacy, a running back for the Los Angeles Rams and New York Jets, was sentenced to six months in prison after video showed him “punching (a) woman in the head and throwing her into a TV while their infant son lay on the couch nearby.”
Ogletree was arrested just this past week and is facing two felony charges – one count of domestic battery committed in the presence of a child less than 16 years old and one count of domestic battery resulting in moderate bodily injury.
In the very game in which Ray Rice will be honored is Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Hill, the game’s top receiver this season, has faced several accusations of domestic violence in his past. In 2014, he was arrested and charged with domestic assault and battery by strangulation after an incident with his then-girlfriend, Crystal Espinal. Hill pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to probation and anger management classes.
In 2019, he was accused of breaking his son’s arm. No charges were filed in that case. An audio recording would later surface in which Hill and the mother discuss the boy’s injury in which she says his son is scared of him.
“You should be afraid of me too, bitch,” Hill replies.
At least Hill now knows that, like Ray Rice, it doesn’t matter what he does off the field, he can still be welcomed back with open arms as a “Legend of the Game.”
