Ray Rice and his now wife, Janay, spoke to reporters in May after the first video of him dragging her out of an elevator was made public. (Rob Carr, Getty Images)
The latest video that surfaced in the Ray Rice incident — the one that has since led to his release from the Ravens, indefinite suspension from the NFL and possibly — has drawn outrage and disgust from those in and out of the NFL.
The former Ravens running back punched his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City casino elevator. He knocked her out cold, then dragged her out. He was caught in , but .
, as well was Chris Harris and former Bronco Duke Ihenacho, made their feelings about Rice and the NFL’s initial handling of the situation very clear Monday. ESPN’s Keith Olbermann issued and anyone involved in the case. Any even the White House offered its thoughts, reiterating its belief “the scourge of violence against women is something that needs to be aggressively combated.”
But not all have commented in the same regard or seem to at all grasp the weight of the issue:
Let’s start with “Fox & Friends,” the morning talk show that thought today would be a good time to joke about Rice’s assault on his wife. (h/t ):
And then there was Mike Ditka, the former Bears coach turned commentator, who had this to say while on ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown”:
“I don’t know Ray at all. I’m sure he’s not a bad guy, but he made a bad mistake. Hey, two lives, are ruined. These two lives are ruined. His earning power is destroyed. That’s an important thing.”
Earlier, SiriusXM decided to turn the focus to the world of Fantasy Football with this …
Are you out of your damn minds ? (h/t )
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero)
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… which lead to this:
We apologize for our earlier tweet. We realize it was very insensitive and we regret it.
— SiriusXM Fantasy (@SiriusXMFantasy)
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But we can’t forget about things that were said and written over the last few months since the initial video was published and the NFL issued its two-game suspension for Rice:
The Ravens tweeted this in May and left it up until Monday afternoon:
Ravens coach John Harbaugh, after the announcement of Rice’s two-game suspension: “It’s not a big deal, it’s just part of the process. There are consequences when you make a mistake like that. I stand behind Ray. He’s a heck of a guy. …”
In a news conference Monday, Harbaugh said he stands by his comments. “Everything I said in terms of what I believe I stand by. I believe that still. I’ll always believe those things,” he said. “And we’ll always stand in support of them as a couple. That’s not going to change.”
Michael Diamondstein, Rice’s lawyer, who had seen the latest video but went on to say this while on an ESPN radio station in New Jersey in May:
“This is just a complete hypothetical. Let’s assume for the sake of argument, rather than enter into the pretrial diversionary program that [Rice] entered into, we hypothetically move forward on the case. And hypothetically we litigate 100 motions and the video comes out and the video shows — hypothetically speaking now, hypothetically speaking — shows that Ray wasn’t the first person that hit and Ray was getting repeatedly hit but just Ray hit harder, fired one back and hit harder. Hypothetically speaking, and he gets found not guilty. Is that result somehow better? Is it better for the public? Is it better for the Ravens? Is it better for Ray? Is it better for Janay?”
Kevin Byrne, the Ravens’ vice president of public and community relations, who wrote this in a column that is still up on the team’s website:
I liked Ray Rice a lot then. I like Ray Rice a lot today.
Clearly Ray has been scrutinized. He has been reviewed in a court of law and in the court of public opinion. The NFL punished Ray Rice with a two-game suspension and a third game check. He will lose 3/17 of his salary. …
When I told (Ravens owner Steve) Bisciotti at the end of our conversation yesterday that “I think I am going to write that blog about Ray,” Steve smiled and said: “Is it a flaw for us that we support our players in tough times? If it is, I’m OK with that.”
Stephen A. Smith, formerly of ESPN first said this while on “First Take” in July:
“What I’ve tried to employ the female members of my family — some of who you all met and talked to and what have you — is that … let’s make sure we don’t do anything to provoke wrong actions, because if I come — or somebody else come, whether it’s law enforcement officials, your brother or the fellas that you know — if we come after somebody has put their hands on you, it doesn’t negate the fact that they already put their hands on you.”
That drew the ire and disgust of , so he issued his first “apology,” which, of course, only dug him further into a hole:
“If a man is pathetic and stupid enough to put his hands on a woman — which I have NEVER DONE, btw — of course he needs to pay the price. Who on earth is denying that? But what about addressing women on how they can help prevent the obvious wrong being done upon them?
In no way was I accusing a women of being wrong. I was simply saying what that preventive measures always need to be addressed because there’s only but so much that can be done after the fact….once the damage is already done. Nothing more. My apologies to @MichelleDBeadle And any woman out there who misconstrued what I said.”
Smith later issued ANOTHER apology on Twitter and a taped apology on ESPN. He was then , but he promptly left for SiriusXM (see above).
Adolpho Birch, the NFL’s vice president of labor policy. He said this on ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” soon after the league issued its two-game ban of Rice:
“Listen, I think if you are any player and you think that based on this decision that it’s OK to go out and commit that kind of conduct, I think that is something that I would suggest to you that no player is going to go out and do that. So in terms of sending a message about what the league stands for, we’ve done that. We can talk about the degree of discipline, we can talk about whether or not third parties need to be involved. I would suggest to you that a third party has been involved in this matter and that was the court that reviewed it, the prosecutor that reviewed it.
“But if it is a question about what the principle of the league is and what standards we stand by, that cannot be questioned. I think it is absolutely clear to all involved that the NFL does not condone domestic violence in any way and will not tolerate it in our league. I don’t know how you can reach a conclusion other than that although I certainly respect the opinion. …
“On balance, we reviewed all the materials, listened to the persons we listened to, took the input of the Players Association. When we looked on balance at all of that, we believe that discipline we issued is appropriate. It is multiple games and hundreds of thousands of dollars. I think that’s fair to say that doesn’t reflect that you condone the behavior. I think we can put that to rest.”
So there you have it. May the scripted apologies commence.
