Roger Goodell Defends Length Of Ray Rice Suspension
By Brett Foote
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke with the press in Canton Friday and addressed the Ray Rice suspension. Goodell defended the decision to suspend Rice two games for his domestic violence incident, which is consistent punishment for first time offenders of the NFL conduct policy.
Roger Goodell speaking to reporters in Canton: 'We have a very firm policy that domestic violence is not acceptable in the NFL.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) August 1, 2014
Roger Goodell: 'I think what's important here is Ray is taking responsibility. He's been accountable for his actions.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) August 1, 2014
Roger Goodell: 'He recognizes he made a horrible mistake and it's unacceptable, by his standards and our standards.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) August 1, 2014
Roger Goodell: 'I was also very impressed with Ray in the sense that Ray is not only accepting this issue but he's saying, 'I was wrong.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) August 1, 2014
Roger Goodell: 'We have to remain consistent. We can't just make up the discipline. It has to be consistent with other cases and it was.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) August 1, 2014
Roger Goodell: 'Ray Rice did not have another incident. There were other cases, and we take them into account.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) August 1, 2014
Goodell: 'I want to see people, when they make a mistake, I want to see them take responsibility and be accountable for it.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) August 1, 2014
Roger Goodell: 'In this case, there was no discipline by the criminal justice system, he was put into a diversionary program.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) August 1, 2014
It was well known all along that Goodell would cite previous cases and use consistency as the reasoning behind Rice’s suspension. It simply wouldn’t be fair to bring the hammer down on one particular player after a precedent has been set in the past. That would have opened a proverbial can of worms with the player’s union.
We wouldn’t be surprised to see some rule changes take place, however. The public backlash over this incident, coupled with the severity of several drug policy violations, is a bad look for the NFL, even if they are only following the already established collective bargaining agreement.