I See No Defense for Ray Rice

By Mitch Chortkoff

Sports Editor

I never like to see anyone lose their job. If someone screws up I look for ways he or she can learn from a mistake.

But this does not apply to Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens’ running back who’s been released from the team and banned from signing with another one in the National Football League, pending approval by the commissioner.

It’s going to be a long time, perhaps never before Rice can play in the league again.

After a video was released this week showing Rice punch his then fiancée and now his wife wife twice, knock her out, then drag her out of a casino elevator the Ravens and the commissioner had to upgrade the punishment from the laughable two games of the first edict.

Rice was originally banned for only the two games by Commissioner Roger Goodell, but the newest dramatic tape hadn’t circulated yet.

When it did the NFL had no choice but to take drastic action.

The NFL should have taken the lead in reacting to Rice’s action from the begining. The fact that it didn’t inspired outrage, including TV commentator Keith Olberman calling for a half dozen people, including Goodell, to resign.

One of those people Olberman targeted was general manager Ozzie Newsome, the former NFL star. He called their lack of the proper action originally a coverup.

Rice will lose millions and currently has no job but what was he thinking?. A high profile professional athlete, did he think what he did could be excused with merely an apology?

Should it matter that his fiancée at the time, now his wife, has reacted strongly to pro football’s penalty? I don’t think so

But if the Ravens won’t employ him any longer can you imagine another team signing him if and when the NFL ban is lifted?

The NFL and other professional sports leagues should take the lead in punishing any of its members from ever striking a woman.

No excuses. No second chances.

“That’s not the man I am,’ said Rice, who has many friends saying he’s a good guy.

“But that’s 30 seconds of my life I won’t be able to take back.”

Unfortunately he’s right.

In a few years will the commotion about him calm down as other matters dominate news programs? It’s possible, but don’t count on it.

Rice is a good football player, but will any team choose to deal with the negatives that would come with signing him?