Ray Rice Speaks: Who Will Listen?
Rice Speaks
You can watch Ray Rice’s full length press conference here. I think he came off contrite and remorseful. For his defenders who watched, I hope some of you paid attention to the words he spoke.
“My actions that night were totally inexcusable,”
This is where I have stood as you can see here, here, and here. Why do people still try to continue to excuse his actions?
“My wife can do no wrong.”
While as a human being, she can do wrong for we all can, in this incident she is not the bad guy. Nothing she did caused her to end up in the state she did. That state was caused by Ray Rice and his actions alone. Breaking up, walking away and restraint were all much more viable options than the one he chose. i repeat, this whole sorry episode is not about Janay Rice. She didn’t knock herself out, drag herself into and out of an elevator, and kick herself to see if she was unconscious.
The Ravens and NFL Hear But They Don’t Listen
The NFL tastelessly continues to sell a pink v-neck Rice jersey which was aimed at its female fans.
The Baltimore Ravens official team website features a story about Rice receiving a standing ovation upon his return to the field. The team’s official blog featured an entry from its public relations director, featuring quotes from the team’s owner that spoke only of what a good man Ray Rice was and how much they wanted to support him.
Obviously the approach to this has been “move along, nothing to see here”. The further we get away from this, it will become “out of sight, out of mind”. I’m fine with that. Organizations and public figures are only as accountable as we the people allow them to be. Just let the record show that the Ravens and the NFL are absolutely paying lip service to the issue of domestic violence. I think that is obvious with the league suspending him for 2 games, and the Ravens docking him an additional game check. All will be forgotten afterwards. Everything will be back to “normal”.
