Ray Rice Should Be Released Following Disturbing Video Leak

Aug 16, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice (27) runs with the ball in the second quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

2:18 pm update: Sure enough, the Ravens released Ray Rice Monday afternoon.

The NFL tried its best to keep the video of Ray Rice striking and knocking his (then) fiance unconscious under wraps.  But early Monday morning TMZ released the video for the world to see and judge.  If you want to see it, you can view the video here.  But be forewarned, it is very disturbing, as you can imagine.

The NFL faced a huge wave of public backlash when it only handed down a two game suspension for Rice following the incident.  Roger Goodell admitted that he made a mistake, and the league made sweeping moves to change their stance on domestic violence, including a lifetime ban for second offenders.

Is this really a decision that should boil down to finances?  Even though the team has publicly stood behind Rice while this situation has played itself out, is this how stand up organizations act?

Just when the league, the Ravens, and Ray Rice thought that this nightmare was behind them, out comes the video detailing the worst part of the incident.  So how will the league and the team respond to this?  Unfortunately, neither will likely do anything.

Rice’s two game suspension won’t change, because the Ravens are unable to add to the length of it.  And the Ravens likely won’t release Rice.  As RussellStreetReport.com points out, it wouldn’t make any financial sense to do so:

“If the Ravens decided to release Rice, they would be relieved of having to pay his base salaries, which would also no longer count against the Cap. However the team WOULD have to account for that $14.25M in dead money – money that has already been paid to Rice, but has yet to count against the Cap.”

“If Rice is released prior to June 1st, all of that $14.25M will count immediately against the 2014 Cap. Since Rice is presently set to count $8.75M against the Cap, his release would cause an additional $5.5M to count against the Cap. That’s $5.5M more than he presently counts. To put that into perspective, the $4.6M in Cap space that was just created by the contract extension for Terrell Suggs would be gone.”

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In short, releasing Rice would create a pretty substantial amount of dead money that would count against the Raven’s salary cap.  But is this really a decision that should boil down to finances?  Even though the team has publicly stood behind Rice while this situation has played itself out, is this how stand up organizations act?

The Ravens could quickly absolve themselves of all criticism by simply cutting ties with Rice.  And one could argue that it won’t make any difference in regards to performance.  After watching Justin Forsett tear up the Bengals on Sunday and following the call up of Fitzgerald Toussaint, do they really need Rice that badly?

More importantly, it’s the right thing to do.  The Ravens need to take a stand and make a statement that they won’t tolerate such lewd behavior.  There are a lot of kids in the team’s fan base that idolize these players.  Do we want them growing up thinking that domestic violence is OK, and that you will get a small slap on the wrist for committing such a disgusting and inexcusable crime?