Ray Rice video would remain concealed and it lost

Ray Rice hitting his wife can’t be condoned under any circumstances, but the incident can be a catalyst for the issue of domestic violence being taken more seriously by the NFL.

The NFL bet that what happened between former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and his then-fiancee/now wife Janay Palmer in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino would never see the light of day.

It gambled that the public outcry over the league’s far too lenient two-game suspension for Rice announced on July 24 would subside and the public would be satiated by commissioner Roger Goodell’s mea culpa and the league’s recently announced tougher standards for those who commit domestic violence.

Roger Goodell: NFL not given Rice video That’s why Goodell is believable when he told the “CBS Evening News” on Tuesday that neither he nor anyone else in the league had seen the damning video from inside the elevator.

According to TMZ, the Revel Casino said the NFL never asked for the video.

For years, the NFL Players Association has decried Goodell’s plenipotentiary powers in disciplinary matters and the NFL’s mishandling of the Rice domestic violence case makes their case.

In the wake of the heinous images and reprehensible action displayed on the casino elevator video, some have called for the ouster of Goodell as NFL commissioner.

It says something about our society that there is more outrage over the discipline of a sports commissioner than there is over the fact that the Atlantic County prosecutor Jim McClain, appointed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, had the elevator video and declined to prosecute Rice, allowing him to go into a pretrial intervention program.

That memo also called for new programs to educate veteran players on domestic abuse, training to help team human resource executives and player engagement personnel identify signs and risk factors for domestic abusers, and hotlines that can be called to confidentially report domestic violence.