Ray Rice should not play professional football

Oliver Parker, Online Editor|January 16, 2015

The reinstatement of former Baltimore Ravens running back, Ray Rice, into the NFL left a thunderstorm over their fan base due to the ongoing rate of domestic violence in the National Football League. The NFL did the right thing in adjusting their domestic violence policies following the ban of Ray Rice, though Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner, should remain more consistent on the actions he takes upon his players.

On Feb. 15, 2014 Ray Rice hit his Fiancée (now wife) Janay Palmer in the face, knocking her unconscious in the Revel Casino in Atlantic City. After the NFL heard about the incident, Rice was originally suspended for two games, then following the release of the video by TMZ the NFL banned Rice from the league. Rice then appealed his ban from the NFL; which lead to his reinstatement into the the league.

“Rice became a sort of present-day Ike Turner. The image of him punching Janay, then dragging her unconscious body out of an elevator, made him, for some, the face of domestic violence. It was all that anyone could talk about for weeks; celebs were even asked about it on red carpets and during interviews, and professional athletes — some of whom supported Ray before the video released, spoke out via social media against the former Raven,” said Ariana Gordon of clutchmagonline.com.

Due to Rice’s incident being so open to the public, Rice became the image of a villian to a lot of people, where as there are other scenarios of domestic violence in the NFL, that some players were able to stay under the radar out of the spotlight. This was not the case for Rice. Rice had all his sponsors drop him and even the video game of madden took him out of the game to save themselves from criticism. Throughout the months following the release of the TMZ video, it was Rice against the world.

“In the wake of criticism over a two-game suspension for Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, the NFL has established a six-game unpaid ban for personnel who violate the league’s policy on domestic violence, Commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday,” said Steve Almasy and Rachel Nichols, CNN.

With all the protests that were directed towards Goodell, something had to be done to fix the annual problem of domestic violence in the NFL. Following Rice’s incident, Goodell did the right thing by changing the policies in the league. First time offenders now get a six-game suspension as opposed to a two-game suspension, which is what it originally was, and second time offenders now can be banned from the league with a chance of reinstatement. With the new rules on domestic violence, the public gained some respect back for Goodell that they previously had lost.

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“Adrian Peterson’s appeal denied, suspension upheld. The league-appointed arbitrator for Peterson’s appeal affirmed the unpaid suspension until at least next spring, the final result of the child-abuse case that kept the Minnesota running back out of all but one game this season and widened the rift between the NFL and its players over the fairness of the disciplinary process,” stated usatoday.com.

After Ray Rice appealed to be reinstated into the league for a domestic violence case, Adrian Peterson followed, just to be denied, unlike Rice. This is one of the lingering problems that the NFL has, the inconsistent treatment of its players. Though Peterson and Rice had two different violation cases, the outcome of their appeals should have been the same; if Peterson, the greatest player at his position of our time did not get the opportunity to come back into the NFL to play the game he loves, Rice should not have had that chance either.

The NFL is gradually working to become better in resolving their cases of domestic violence. It is a continual and quite horrific problem in the NFL. Not only does this problem need to be stood upon in the NFL, but the nation as a whole; it is time for a change.