The Crystal Ball 2014 Week 2 Thursday Night Special

I am unbelievably incensed right now.

Not that I finally saw Ray Rice callously and maliciously assault his now wife. We already knew that happened. Yes the video is visceral and brings home the brutality of the assault, but I was already angered by that. Not that the Ravens and the NFL finally got off their collective asses and did something meaningful about the situation, despite the fact that they already had written and verbal descriptions of what happened. Nor am I angered about the transparent way both organizations are happy to throw Rice upon the sword of public scorn in order to save face. As far as I’m concerned, Rice earned that.

I’m infuriated the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens are attempting to rewrite history, and sell us a narrative that they had no idea how bad Rice’s actions were, that they never saw the video of his assault until Monday, and they are just as shocked as the general public.

TMZ Sports, right now a more objective and thorough sports reporting firm than ESPN, Sports Illustrated and the networks combined, released on Monday the surveillance video from inside the elevator which showed Rice knocking out his then fiancée. The Ravens cut Rice that afternoon, and the NFL suspended Rice indefinitely.

Since those actions, the Ravens and the NFL have been in damage control mode, and working desperately to spin this in their favor. They’ve come out saying they never saw the video. They claimed they tried to obtain it, but were unable to succeed in acquiring the evidence. They stated that with this new evidence, their understanding of the events and Rice changed radically and they acted swiftly. However, all of their explanations and excuses ring hollow. The video reveals no new evidence that wasn’t available in other forms. All it did was visualize the atrocity that was already known. The NFL and the Ravens wanted Rice back on the field, they wanted all of this to go away, and they acted accordingly to achieve those ends.

Remember, the NFL and the Ravens had everything to gain by continually playing the story line that Rice was a good person who made one tiny mistake and was really the victim in all of this. He’s a star that improves one of their marquee teams, brings in fans around the world, and helps drive merchandise sales and fantasy football leagues. And until Monday, that’s the exact story line they played up. The team even went so far as to host a sham of a press conference to put Rice on display as an upstanding young man who erred. They had Janay apologize for her part in the entire ugly mess. Apologize! If having the victim of domestic abuse apologize to a room full of reporters, in front of her husband and his employers didn’t make you sick, then I certainly hope watching the video changed your tune.

I refuse to applaud the Ravens, as some did, for cutting Rice or Goodell for suspending him, because I don't believe for one moment they didn't know how bad this situation was. They did know. They had, at minimum, written and verbal evidence of exactly what happened in that elevator. Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome confirmed what Rice told them happened was exactly what we saw on the video. The team and league only acted once the public knew how bad the situation was, and are now trying to save face. And part of that is to claim through every media outlet they can,
including the sham of an interview aired on the CBS Evening News, that none of them had access to, or seen this video prior to Monday.

Harbaugh, Bisciotti, Goodell, and everyone else from the Ravens and the league are now claiming ignorance of Rice’s actions and that if they had known it was this bad, things would be different. But can you honestly believe an organization that has managed to make over $10 Billion a year, continue to keep their tax exempt status with the government while they continue to bilk taxpayers repeatedly for multi-million dollar stadiums while profits from which go into the pockets of billionaire owners, didn't know everything that happened that night?

They knew what happened. And I’m sure they saw that tape. Right now, there’s so many open questions regarding the videotape it’s unreal. Earlier this year, both Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Christ Mortensen of ESPN reported that from their sources inside the league, the NFL had and viewed the elevator footage. The NFL’s claim of never seeing the video calls into question the reports by both reporters. Mortensen to his credit maintains his original reporting. King on the other hand turned tail and ran, putting out an addendum to his coverage that can be read as either covering up for is original source, or falling on sword at the altar of the NFL to protect his league access and internal sources. The truly bizarre part is when King states that he hopes we all get the truth once the story is fully vetted and out in the public. Apparently, King long ago ceased being a reporter and became merely the brand that is Peter King, SI magnate, MMQB Editor In Chief, NBC Talking Head and Hall of Fame gatekeeper. Either way, it puts his journalistic integrity at about the level of Jay Glazer at this point.

The NFL and the Ravens have claimed they never saw this video. The NFL claims it requested the video from New Jersey law enforcement and other sources, but was denied access. However, now there are reports coming out that the NFL never even requested the video. Worse still, now it seems they did have the video. Just yesterday a law enforcement officer from New Jersey stated he sent a copy of the video to the NFL in April, and has a voicemail from an NFL official acknowledging receipt.

Somebody is lying, and doing it poorly.

Either the NFL didn't know about the video, which says their investigative and management structure are inept. Or they knew, and they just callously ignored common human dignity and compassion and preferred to take a more sinister and devious approach by covering up evidence in hopes to have the situation disappear and continue to rake in profit. If the upper echelon power structure is this inept, it must be replaced. If it is this callous and devious, it must be replaced.

For the sake of argument, let's say the NFL didn't see the video, and didn't get access to a video that was obtained by both TMZ and Rice’s lawyers, people with less pull, less power, less money and less influence than the NFL. All that does is build the league a wall of plausible deniability, of which they keep using to fend off an endless stream of criticism. However, that criticism is reaching a fever pitch, and if it starts jeopardizing revenue streams, may consume Goodell and his hubris.

But let’s not kid ourselves. The NFL is a very powerful organization, with very powerful lobbyists and resources. They strong arm the federal government, NFL cities and states to get what they want on a regular basis. Just ask Minnesota taxpayers. Does Goodell really want to try and make us believe that one group of law enforcement officials in New Jersey told Goodell and his minions to go pound sand, and Heir Goodell backed down? Oh no, if he really wanted to see that video tape, he would have. Just ask the Saints and Michael Vick.

Regardless of the actual video, the NFL still had eyewitness accounts, legal information from the criminal courts, police reports and written and verbal descriptions of the events. The video itself did not reveal any new information, except to debunk the ignorant horde that was happy to go along with the sick narrative that Janay instigated things and Ray just defended himself. The NFL didn’t need a video to know this was bad, and required far more than a 2 game suspension.

As I said before, the Ravens, the NFL and law enforcement had all this evidence. But when faced with the opportunity to do the right thing, all did nothing. Law enforcement swept it under the rug with domestic abuse classes followed by dropped charges. The NFL slapped a 2 game suspension on Rice, which was merely a courtesy punishment, of which the Ravens complicity agreed to, so they could get their big star and money maker back on the field as fast as possible.

Don’t believe me? Well then, think back to 2012, when the Ravens did nothing about linebacker Terrell Suggs, who punched his girlfriend in the neck and drug her alongside a moving car, as their children were in the back seat? Suggs was never even suspended, and that wasn’t the first incident of him committing domestic abuse against her.

Here’s a few quotes for you, just to keep in mind what kind of people run the Ravens and the NFL.

"There are consequences when you make a mistake like that.  I stand behind Ray. He's a heck of a guy. He's done everything right since. He made a mistake. He's gonna have to pay a consequence. It's good for kids to understand it works that way. That's how it works. That's how it should be." – Ravens head coach John Harbaugh when Rice was initially suspended for 2 games

How well does this quote play now? For that matter, to all those rice defenders who crowed relentlessly that the punishment was sufficient because he's such a great guy and does so much good and is being unfairly persecuted, how do you feel today? How do you feel that he was given a standing ovation and training camp? How do you feel going forward supporting such an organization?

"Seeing that video changed everything. We should have seen it earlier. We should have pursued our own investigation more vigorously. We didn’t and we were wrong. Because of his positive contributions on and off the field over the last six years, Ray had earned every benefit of the doubt from our organization. We took everything we knew and decided to support Ray Rice until we could not." – Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti in an open letter to fans from the team’s website

Allow me to translate:  Seeing that the public saw that video changed everything. We saw it earlier, but were hoping no one else would. We were wrong to think in current society someone wouldn’t leak it. Because of Rice’s positive contributions to the team’s bottom line over the last six years, Ray had earned every benefit for us to cover this up and have him continue to generate money for me and the Ravens. We did everything we knew and decided to sweep this under the rug, until no more could fit. Yeah, that sounds better.

"We requested from law enforcement any and all information about the incident, including the video from inside the elevator. That video was not made available to us and no one in our office has seen it until today.” – NFL statement issued Monday

This was the NFL’s main response to the story on Monday other than suspending Rice. Tuesday, they began the spin control.

When Roger Goodell took the position of commissioner of the NFL, he claimed he was going to clean up the league. He was going to protect the NFL shield and punish players who broke the law and tarnished the shield. After almost a decade, nothing has changed.

This off season may have been the worst yet for off the field criminal behavior by NFL players. Right now, the NFL, not including Ray Rice, has three different domestic violence and sexual assault cases to face, including one now involving an owner. Since Goodell took the helm in 2006, there have been 56 cases of domestic violence in the NFL. All combined have been punished for a total of 13 games suspended. Kind of makes Breast Cancer Awareness Month ring a little more hollow, no?

Goodell’s punishment of players has been inconsistent at best. Marijuana violations are consistently and severely punished, but off field incidents punished in a far more haphazard method. His double standard in punishing players versus owners is laughably absurd. He shows favoritism when punishing different players for the same offenses, and seems only interested in severely punishing players who make an on field mockery of his supposed safety campaign.

Speaking of safety, he claims at every opportunity he cares about players and wants to make the game safer, but does nothing to back up these statements. He has not mandated league wide equipment that would help reduce the potential for concussions, nor set rules in place to reduce helmet to helmet hits. There is no consistent punishment for offenders of said hits, and players are often left to the public opinion of the week to know if their hit is legal, within the bounds of legal or illegal.

Players are committing suicide every year, yet the NFL has denied or dragged its feet on admitting knowledge on the link between head collisions and concussions and CTE, and delayed or hampered attempts to further study this condition.

He has presided over the Spygate scandal, from which no one received a satisfying answer. I’m still curious as to why the tapes needed to be destroyed. He lorded over the Bountygate debacle, which eventually just felt like spiteful retribution against New Orleans, and a mess that became so bad Paul Tagliabue had to come in and clean it up.

He allowed a referee strike to almost sabotage an entire season. He almost managed to begin a season on strike, something that hadn’t been done in several decades, and created such inequality between owners and players it should be embarrassing. Of course, nothing seems to embarrass a man who continually develops new revenue streams to enrich the league and its owners while continually foisting costs and taxes upon the general public.

He continually supports the use of a racist team name in the face of growing public opposition. And sadly, the truth behind his endless claims for player safety have nothing to do with genuine concern and are merely transparent attempts to extend an already brutally long season.

Goodell’s father Charles was an honorable and noble man, who stood up against the established power structure to do what was right for the people. Charles did this knowing full well that it would cost him his job, livelihood, position and power. He did it anyway. Many benefitted and were better off for what Charles did. I wonder how he would feel today if he could see that his son has become a large and powerful cog in that very same power structure, with little to no concern for the people and who would trample a victim of domestic violence in order to keep the profits rolling.

On Tap Tonight

Thursday

Pittsburgh (1-0) at Baltimore (0-1)

Never in my years as a fan have I wanted, nee, needed Pittsburgh to win more than tonight. And that includes all 8 Super Bowl games. I, and every fan of every team and that should include disgraced Raven fans, desperately need Pittsburgh to ride in as the good guys, and thoroughly pound an organization that so callously allowed an abuser to stroll through their facilities seemingly unpunished. The Steelers need to pound a team that not only stood by this cretin, but stood beside him, lauded him, turned him into the victim while having his wife take blame and responsibility for being beaten by a professional athlete. An organization that hoped, as the NFL did, they could just sweep this under the rug as they have so many other awful transgressions. An organization that still seeks the counsel, and recently just hoisted up as a hero, a man once accused of double murder in a case that has never been solved.

As if I needed any reason to hate this team more, boy they sure gave it. I hope they go 0-16 this season, and I need Pittsburgh to get them off to a great start tonight and beat them down with a second win. Mind you, I am under no delusion that my team has fielded nothing but boy scouts and good Samaritans, as I know we’ve had our share of problems and unsavory individuals. But someone needs to stick it to Baltimore, and by extension the NFL. And I can think of no team I’d prefer to do that than Pittsburgh.

Steelers over Ravens

Coming Sunday, hopefully a bit of calm headedness, and perhaps a new commissioner.