The court was right in not treating Ray Rice more harshly for assaulting his now wife Janay. The NFL and the Baltimore Ravens were wrong in not treating him more harshly. Through it all, the media and other observers have largely missed that point.
Last March a grand jury indicted Rice on third-degree aggravated assault. Rice, as a first-time offender with no criminal record was eligible for a pre-trial diversion program that includes extensive counseling. If he fails to complete the program, he risks immediate imprisonment. In court, Janay Rice, now married to Ray Rice asked for leniency for her husband. The New York Times reported this that “after Janay Rice declined to testify against her husband, charges were reduced to court-supervised counseling,” implying that the prosecutors did not have the ability to bring felony charges against Ray Rice without her cooperation. In fact, prosecutors did have the ability to bring a felony case and the evidence of the videos could well have been sufficient to obtain a felony conviction.
But what would that prove? After considering the case in detail with more information than many of those in the media making judgments on this case, prosecutors determined that the lives of both ray Rice and Janay Rice as well as society could be better served by having him undergo counseling rather than seek a prison sentence. Upon successful completion of the anger management counseling, his record will be expunged. This was entirely consistent with other first offenders without criminal records would have been treated.
Why wouldn’t the same rationale apply to the Ravens and the NFL?
The answer is that the phenomenon of domestic violence gives every appearance of being institutionalized in professional football. It goes beyond the private, personal relationship between a man and a woman. When the Ray Rice incident happened, the NFL investigated, viewed the initial video and many think viewed the second video as well. It is important to remember that there is nothing that occurs in the second video that provides new evidence or information as to what occurred on that night. It was already abundantly clear that Ray Rice had knocked out his wife Janay in the elevator. After due consideration including personally meeting with Ray Rice and his wife, Commissioner Roger Goodell initially determined that an appropriate sanction would be a two game suspension, primarily due to Ray Rice’s apparent sincere apology and acknowledgement of his offense and because the charges were dismissed pursuant to the pretrial diversion. To put this sanction into perspective, Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Gordon is serving a season long suspension for a violation of the league’s rules on use of marijuana.
Following a public uproar over the two-game suspension, a month later, Commissioner Goodell in a letter to team owners indicated he had made a mistake by such a short suspension. In his letter he indicated “I didn’t get it right.” A new policy was put into effect whereby any NFL employee would be suspended for six games for a first offense of domestic violence and a minimum of a year for a second offense. Of course, the Commissioner did not follow his own newly established rule in regard to Rice. Rice was suspended indefinitely rather than have his punishment be that of any other first offender under the NFL’s new rule because now there was a video. As I tell my Sports and Entertainment Law students as Bentley University, when the public speaks, the NFL listens.
But good can come from this. Ray Rice has the opportunity to not only be a good husband, but to become an active crusader against domestic violence and the NFL has an opportunity to give this national problem the attention it truly deserves. If the NFL is really committed to being a part of the solution, it can take a leading role in not only raising awareness of this problem, but providing programs for its players.
Steven J.J. Weisman is Senior Lecturer in the Bentley Department of Law, Tax, and Financial Planning.