Ravens RB Ray Rice Released, Suspended Indefinitely After New Abuse Video Surfaces
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Former Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice was dropped by the team and faces indefinite suspension from the NFL after new video surfaced of the running back knocking his former fiancee unconscious in a casino elevator.
The decision comes as the league makes promises of more severe punishments for domestic violence cases.
The video, released by TMZ Sports, shows Ray Rice and then-fiancee Janay Palmer at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City in February. An altercation ensues, and rice is seen shoving Palmer, who shoves him back. Rice is then seen striking her with his left fist, sending Palmer's head into the elevator wall and handrail, knocking her unconscious, before dragging her body out of the elevator door.
Rice had issued an apology after the NFL initially suspended him for two games.
"I made a huge mistake, and I want to own it. I want to stand here in front of my teammates and tell you I made a huge mistake," Rice said. "These two games are gonna hurt."
That suspension came as the result of a different video, captured by a hallway camera, outside the elevator.
The NFL said it had never seen this new video before.
Critics agreed the two-game suspension was not severe enough, eventually getting agreement from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
In August, Goodell announced that a player's first offense would result in a six-game suspension, and a second offense would prompt a lifetime ban.
Rice and Palmer ultimately married in March. Rice, who was charged with felony aggravated assault, accepted a pre-trial intervention program that kept him out of jail.
"It's something we saw for the first time today, all of us," Baltimore Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh said. "It changed things, of course. It made things a little bit different."
Charles Latibeaudiere of TMZ suggested the media is more responsible for the indefinite suspension than the league is.
"We cared more than the NFL did to find out what happened in that elevator," Latibeaudiere said. "If you're investigating it, you need to find out what happened in the elevator, and the fact that the NFL, it appears at this point, made very little effort to actually see that video, is a failure. The person who is really going to be in the crosshairs going forward here is Roger Goodell."
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