Over the past couple of days, the media has been full of stories about the video of Ray Rice dragging his unconscious fiancee out of an elevator after the two got in a fight in an Atlantic City casino. It’s a top story on ESPN and CNN; Ravens fan blogs are featuring it prominently on their websites. Now police are saying that they have video of Rice actually striking his fiancee, presumably proving that she didn’t just suddenly faint in the elevator. But the Ravens leadership has largely been silent.
If I was feeling charitable, I’d say that they were probably waiting until more facts emerged before issuing a definitive statement. But plenty of facts have already emerged, and the only team reaction is this mealy-mouthed blog post that talks more about how losing Rice’s salary cap would affect the team than the fact that he knocked a woman unconscious in public. And instead of condemning Rice’s actions, or even just making a general statement against domestic violence, the Ravens website’s lead story is a “Which Raven Are You?” personality test. (I’m Ozzie Newsome.)
What makes this even worse is that there is a long history of NFL players with domestic violence arrests; in 2012, 21 teams had at least one player on their roster who had a domestic violence or assault charge on his record. Keeping quiet about Ray Rice is playing into this culture. If the Ravens want to keep my respect, they’ll have to say something about this soon–and it had better not be about salary caps.
