Roger Goodell’s days as NFL commissioner might be numbered, if the early fallout from a newly released Ray Rice domestic abuse video is any indication of things to come. Goodell handed down a two-game suspension to the Baltimore Raven’s player reportedly without seeing the extended footage of Rice knocking his now wife out cold.
The new recording — taken from the couple’s Valentine’s Day altercation — shows Rice’s punching wife Janay Palmer, in the face inside a hotel elevator.
The aftermath now has Goodell in his own fight, against the NFL fans and the media, who want him to step down.
From Esquire:
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is sending a strong message with the league’s new domestic abuse policy today, and that message is this:
You can hit a woman once. But only once.
You can even knock her unconscious, drag her limp body out of a casino elevator in plain sight of others, and “own it” in a press conference. But only once.
The second time you do all of that, you will receive a lifetime ban. The first time you do all of that, you will be suspended for six games. Unless, of course, you did all of that before today and your name is Ray Rice. Then you will be suspended for two.
It’s time for Roger Goodell to stop being the commissioner of the NFL.
The new rule is another example of a commissioner who is obsessed with hard-and-fast rules that are only created immediately after controversy, but do not allow for nuance or malleability in the face of new evidence.
Roger Goodell’s policy on drugs—perhaps the one that requires the most flexibility in its interpretation—is just as rigid and unbudging as all of the rest. It is a policy that suspends a player the same for taking anabolic steroids, or crack cocaine, or heroin, or marijuana, or fertility pills, or unprescribed Sudafed.
Before Rice was dropped from the team, Goodell was encouraged to maybe increase the punishment on Rice. USA Today suggests that Goodell treat the case as “something new” and “suspend Rice for four more games, for a total suspension of the new league standard of six games.”
Of course this was all before Rice was suspended from the league all together, but the spotlight could still be on Goodell. Is this the last straw for frustrated fans?
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