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Ray Rice will appeal indefinite suspension on Monday: report
Ray Rice is not going quietly into his indefinite suspension. Rice will appeal his indefinite suspension on Monday, Pro Football Talk reported.
Rice was involved in an altercation with his then-fiancee in February in an Atlantic City casino. This summer, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Rice for two games for his actions, in which he knocked his now-wife Janay Rice unconscious with a punch. However, when video of the actual punch surfaced last week, Goodell, under extreme public criticism, increased the suspension to "indefinite." Rice's team, the Baltimore Ravens, also cut ties with him. (For a complete timeline of the Rice case, click here.)
The NFL Players Association will handle Rice's appeal. And while the NFLPA will surely draw criticism for its decision to do so, Rice's case provides an important precedent: can a player be, in effect, punished twice for the same offense? One need not in any way approve of what Rice did to contend that there's a potentially problematic precedent being set here.
Of course, the larger issue is why the punishment was so lenient to begin with, given the fact that the commissioner knew that Rice had knocked his fiancee unconscious and that the second, more graphic tape had been reportedly delivered to NFL headquarters. The appeal will surely put Goodell and his decisions under the microscope. For that reason, Goodell, who is the ultimate arbiter on these sorts of appeals, will likely need to excuse himself from the proceedings.
As PFT notes, when several New Orleans Saints appealed the commissioner's judgment in the bounty scandal, former commissioner Paul Tagliabue stepped in, and ultimately overturned all judgments against the Saints. Such a reversal is unlikely here, but the appeal will shine even more light onto the NFL's highly criticized decision-making in the Rice case.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Facebook or on Twitter.
