Ray Rice saga...NFL finally called out as liars and cheats

Have you been following the story of running back Ray Rice, of the Baltimore Ravens?  He who cold-cocked his gf (now wife), Jaynay, on an elevator in an Atlantic City casino back in February?  The first time we heard of it, we were shown a clip of him dragging her unconscious and limp form, in a cocktail dress, out of the elevator.  We were told nothing but that there had been a brief spat between the two.

Commissioner Roger Goodell came out and "boldly" administered a two-game suspension to Rice, righteously declaring that the NFL will not stand for all this domestic abuse.  Wait a fookin' minute!!  That young woman we saw being dragged unconscious off an elevator...an obvious clear knock out...a two game suspension?

Well, two or three days ago someone in the Atlantic City Police Department released the clip of what went on inside the elevator, before the doors open.  Rice is shown administering a hard left hook to his gf, sending her limp body straight to the ground.  That was what he was dragging out the elevator like a sack of potatoes in the first clip.  It was ugly, ruthless and animal-like behavior.

Shift gears, Roger Goodell: It's no longer just about spouse abuse, although that is certainly high on our list, but what about this cover-up.  The quick-footed, toe-tapping Goodell announces that no one in the NFL ever saw the clip of the action inside the elevator.  He claims that Rice told him he "slapped" Jaynay.  He claims to be one of the deceived in all this. Haha...the NFL is the victim, his logic would have us believe.

Others disagree:

ESPN Outside the Lines wrote:Goodell made the statement Tuesday during an interview with CBS News, saying the latest video released by TMZ Sports about the incident was "inconsistent" with what the former Baltimore Ravens running back had told him. But four sources close to Rice say that during the disciplinary meeting in the commissioner's office on June 16, Rice told Goodell he had hit Janay Rice, then his fiancee, in the face inside a Revel Casino Hotel elevator in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and had knocked her unconscious.

"Ray didn't lie to the commissioner," a source with knowledge of the meeting told "Outside the Lines." "He told the full truth to Goodell -- he made it clear he had hit her, and he told Goodell he was sorry and that it wouldn't happen again."

So, the least they now say about Roger Goddell is that he is a liar.  Well fook, some of us have known that for years, if not decades.

Roger Goodell is a part of a cabal that came into the NFL with former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.  Paul Tagliabue hand-picked his assistant, Roger Goodell, to succeed him.  They began to fill the ranks of higher NFL officials with like-minded individuals, including field officials who call the game.  

Now the legal tangles that the NFL has had with Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders, are the stuff of legends.  Everyone ended up hating Al Davis before he died last year, handing him the reputation of being “litigation-minded”.  Now you can have whatever opinion you want about Davis, but the fact is that he won all of those lawsuits.  This means that the NFL was operating outside of the law—albeit, in civil matters—even back in the day.  Wait for it...this is just a clue.

Wanna know who the lawyer for the NFL was in all that haggling with Davis?  It was none other than Paul Tagliabue.  He went from the lawyer who had been battling Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders in all those legal contests—which the Oakland Raiders tended to win—to being Commissioner of the NFL.

It’s not so much that the NFL owners hired their own lawyer, but what happened next.  After Tagliabue was instated in the priestly position of Commissioner, bad things began to happen to the Oakland Raiders on the football field.  Penalties began to pour down like a monsoon.  The Raiders went from a normal team, to the consistently the most penalized-team of the year.  Not only that, but touchdowns were denied as if the officials didn't see it, and 'no-calls' came raining in...you know what a 'no-call' is, when a team cheats and the official winks. Lol.  (I wouldn't be surprised if most of the concussion lawsuits come from ex-Raiders, from all the 'no-calls' the officials visited on illegal hits on Raiders.)  Nothing could change it.  Players were traded in from other teams, and suddenly they became the most penalized players.  Coaches came and went, and they became the most penalized coach in history.  Indeed, Al Davis died last year, and still the Raiders are the most penalized team in the NFL.  It was a clear case of the vendetta of the Tagliabue gang.

‘Sour-grapes’ quill, you say…but alas, remember the “Tuck Rule?”  Nowhere in the history of professional sports was a more open and flagrant insult to fan intelligence handed down, than the making up of an unheard of rule, on the spot, on the field, by officials upon a Raiders team, in the 2001 AFC divisional playoff game.  On the spot, officials made up a rule that QB Brady didn’t fumble the football…because he was actually in the act of tucking the ball into his lap.  Everybody's response was the same...WTF???  It was a clear fumble.  It was indistinguishable from a million other fumbles that had happened for over a century of the game.  And besides, where is it written that tucking the ball away is a privileged act?  He fookin’ dropped the ball, but the officials had orders to prejudice every ruling against the Oakland Raiders as reprisal toward owner Al Davis.  

Sour grapes quill?  Nowhere is there better proof of the way the ‘Tagliabue gang’ went about running the NFL, than the infamous “Tuck Rule.”   And consistent with the aims of the Tagliabue gang, the Raiders are a ruined team that needs to be disbanded as a result of the campaign of ‘over-officiating’ by the NFL Officials.  They lie as limp as Jaynay Rice, only on the football field rather than a casino floor.

Today the ‘Tagliabue gang’ rules the NFL with an iron fist, confident that the owners will back their every play.  It is the Tammany Hall of professional sports.  What comes with a Tammany Hall mentality?  It is deceit and arrogance…the expectation that if you don’t win, you will change the rules.

What is my point in this, the Ray Rice saga?  It is that no matter how high the pinnacle, you’re still the same old person, with the same old standards, you started out with.  When the pressure is on, you resort to the same old tricks, the same old lying ways, the same old fraud and deceit.  

Roger Goodell…the legacy of Paul Tagliabue lives on.

this whole thing is getting annoying

while i dont condone violence but she did hit him and come at him first

why no Solange should be in jail? because its a double standard!

they were both drunk, jaynay knew how powerful ray is

now as to Roger he was terrible before this but lines the NFL OWNERS POCKETS WITH CASH

he did lie so we'll see what happens

also it says you can only punish a player for the incident once, so Roger suspended him 2 games, he cant suspended him again, also the ravens cant release him if already punished by the NFL

if filed for grievance he'll win

groomsy wrote:this whole thing is getting annoying

while i dont condone violence but she did hit him and come at him first

why no Solange should be in jail? because its a double standard!

they were both drunk, jaynay knew how powerful ray is

I believe the allegation is not that she took a swing at Ray, but that the two of them were involved in a spitting match...apparently that's what they were doing by leaning into, or towards one another.  That's ugly enough, and certainly it would likely lead to a swing by someone.  It just so happens that Ray used the left hook, and cold-cocked Jaynay.  But she deserves as much of the blame.

And she will get it...she subsequently married Ray, and we may presume that they are happy with one another today.  So, if Ray loses his job, and many millions of dollars over this, so will she.  Good result for bad rubbish, or so they say.

But I'm more concerned about the behavior of the NFL in all of this.  For the past 15-20 years, the NFL has become one of the most arrogant, self-assuming institutions of American life.  Now, with people questioning the violence of the game, and with all the drugs, and now this spousal abuse issue, I think it's about time for the NFL to come off it's high horse and join the real world.

It would help if the Tagliabue gang was ousted and a responsible, practical group was put into place.

groomsy wrote:now as to Roger he was terrible before this but lines the NFL OWNERS POCKETS WITH CASH

he did lie so we'll see what happens

also it says you can only punish a player for the incident once, so Roger suspended him 2 games, he cant suspended him again, also the ravens cant release him if already punished by the NFL

if filed for grievance he'll win

There sure does seem to be a double jeopardy issue in all of this. That runs against the grain of American life and law.

But that's what I mean about the NFL...they seem to think they can rewrite the rules whenever they get into trouble. It's time the Tagliabue gang moved out.

And there's so much doubt that they didn't know about this video until TMZ released it -- the NFL notoriously keeps tabs on even potential high draft picks. I think if Rice was a second-year linebacker he would have been kicked out long before the video was made public.

I also don't know that I agree with the lifetime ban. I'd have suspended him for a year and put conditions on his return, like going through counseling and showing that he got no football related earnings during his suspension.

Ben_Reilly wrote:And there's so much doubt that they didn't know about this video until TMZ released it -- the NFL notoriously keeps tabs on even potential high draft picks. I think if Rice was a second-year linebacker he would have been kicked out long before the video was made public.

I also don't know that I agree with the lifetime ban. I'd have suspended him for a year and put conditions on his return, like going through counseling and showing that he got no football related earnings during his suspension.

+1

Ben_Reilly wrote:And there's so much doubt that they didn't know about this video until TMZ released it -- the NFL notoriously keeps tabs on even potential high draft picks. I think if Rice was a second-year linebacker he would have been kicked out long before the video was made public.

I also don't know that I agree with the lifetime ban. I'd have suspended him for a year and put conditions on his return, like going through counseling and showing that he got no football related earnings during his suspension.

So, on the greater question, you feel as I do, that Roger Goodell should go and a new Commissioner should be installed.

There is a clear pattern of a dictatorship in the NFL. Lying, cover-ups, making up rules as they go along...it is a recipe for deceit and inequity currently in charge of the NFL. No justice can be found in such an environment, least of all on important issues such as racism, women's rights and LGBT issues.