My Take on The Ray Rice Incident

First I'd like to note that this post may be bad timing as today marks 13 years since the United States was attacked by terrorists. In no way do I want to take from that. My prayers go out to the families of those who lost their lives that day. We will never forget!

On Monday, TMZ released a video of Ray Rice punching his then fiancé and now wife, Janay in the face (back in a February incident at a casino in Atlantic City). Have you heard of it? Watched it? I'm sure you have and if you haven't you can watch it here.

I just want to start out by saying that I was a huge Ray Rice fan and I especially admired the work he did against bullying. I had his jersey and wore it during most Ravens games. And the only reason I am doing this post is because this hits home for me. Here in Baltimore, football and the Ravens are huge. A way of life.

It's not very often that children can look up to an NFL player for not only their football skills but their character. Ray Rice WAS that. He taught children that it was wrong to bully each other. Hats off to him. Ray Rice, THANK YOU for your work and wonderful foundation!

Back in February when the camera footage showed Ray Rice dragging his unconscious wife out of an elevator, I hoped that it was because she drank too much. Maybe she just passed out? Then he admitted to having an altercation with her. I hoped that maybe he just pushed her or slapped her and because she was so drunk she was being dramatic about the situation. I was disappointed in Ray Rice then but thought that there must be more to the story and he certainly wasn't the reason his wife was unconscious for 2 minutes.

I was wrong. Ray Rice punched his wife in the face, knocking her out immediately, and causing her to be unconscious.  I have lost all respect for him. Many people say that Janay was wrong because she spit on him and tried hitting him. Yes, that was wrong!  But, call me old fashioned- I believe that a man should never put his hands on a woman unless his life was being threatened. Period. No questions asked. Some may say that's not fair but guess what, it's not fair that one day I'm going to have to push a 7 lb human being out of my you know what!!!

To add to that, Ray Rice works out every day for a living. His body is a fine tuned machine designed to take on the largest men in America. He's an NFL running back. His punch could have easily killed his wife. Ever heard that professional fighters can't fight in public because legally their bodies are weapons? I'm not sure if that's true but that's kind of how I feel about this.

Now this is where my take on this may or may not surprise you. I do not think the Ravens and the NFL should've suspended him indefinitely. Why? Well other than the fact that Michael Vick (a convicted dog fighter and murderer) can play in the NFL, it was wrong for the Ravens and NFL to choose a "punishment" for him (knowing that he admitted to having an altercation with Janay) and then go back on that "punishment" when the video was released.

Ray Rice admitted what he did. Did he say to what extreme? No. But now that you see the video you want to go back on your original "punishment" and end his career? I don't think so. This video should've been seen months ago and THAT is when they should've chosen his "punishment". I'm not even going to go into the fact that the Ravens and NFL probably DID see this video a long time ago and are not admitting it. 

But I guess like I said earlier, life isn't fair. So what are your takes on the incident? Where do you stand?

Ray (with Janay) apologizes in a press conference

XoXo