Ray Rice won’t be playing for the Ravens again after the team released him on Monday.
He won’t be eligible to resume his playing career a week from now either. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello announced on Twitter that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has suspended the veteran running back indefinitely.
“Roger Goodell has announced that based on new video evidence that became available today he has indefinitely suspended Ray Rice,” Aiello wrote.
It’s the least you’d expect from the league based on the video released on TMZ on Monday that shows Rice knocking his then-fiance (and current wife) out with a left hand to the face. It left the league looking clueless, at best, about the nature of Rice’s crime, something they admitted when they announced they had never viewed the video from inside the elevator before deciding that Rice’s conduct warranted a two-game suspension.
The league deserves no great praise for extending a suspension they already admitted was too short by changing the league’s policy on domestic violence. They do deserve a lot of questions about the way the Rice investigation was handled and how they’ll handle such cases in the future.
As for Rice, it’s hard to see him playing in the league again this season. Beyond that, he’ll be 28 and two years removed from an awful season so it’s not unthinkable that he’s played his final down.