1-Man’s Opinion Column-Tuesday- “Just Asking-Ray Rice”

Posted by on February 16th, 2016  •  2 responses  • 

“Just Asking-Ray Rice”

 

 

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We’ve come thru the 2015-NFL season with all the lawbreakers on the field, except one. Wither Ray Rice?

 

 

Rice comes to mind with the report late last night that TMZ, employing checkbook journalism tactics, paid 100,000 to obtain the two videos of the Ray Rice inducement.

 

 

One of Rice dragging his then fiancée out of an elevator after she hit her head inside. Then the second, more damning video, of Rice actually slugging her and knocking her out.

 

 

We all know the end result. The Baltimore Ravens suspend Rice, then a couple of weeks later, in the midst of a natiowide firestorm about domestic abuse, terminate his big money contract, which had 36M left on it.

 

 

That was followed by appeals, hearings, arbitration cases, and then eventually a plea bargain from the player, and later reinstatement by the NFL after he missed an entire season. Of course there has been no contract offer for Rice, not from Baltimore, to bring him back, or from anyone else.

 

 

Some say he is too toxic for any franchise to want to bring on board. That’s garbage. He did something wrong, he profusely apologized, has done charity work, and has paid a steep price, emotionally and financially for a night of too many drinks with the woman he married.

 

 

Others say age caught up to him, probably more true that anything else, because his production had tailed off the prior two years, and running backs do get old once you cross age 30.

 

 

The NFL was reeling in 2014, Greg Hardy’s guns and punches attack on his ex-girlfriend. A year long paid suspension was followed by a free-agent contract with the Dallas Cowboys. Adrian Peterson sat our nearly the same season, after the child abuse incident, though he was paid during all the discipline hearings. He comes back and had a spectacular 2015 year for Minnesota.

 

 
And as we reached the end of the 2015 campaign, the latest to step into the spotlight were Johnny Manziel for his off-field escapades, or Vontaze Burfict for his violent acts on the field.

 

 

If you were to list the hideous aspects of what each of the above mentioned players did, where does Rice fall, for a 1-punch knockout? Yet no one wants to give him a chance to show if he has anything left to give on the field.

 

 

Adding to all this is now the latest chapter in the Rice story. A security guard at the Atlantic City hotel, where the drinking spree, led to arguments, led to the punch and the knockout, found the incident on security video. He taped it on his cell phone and then called TMZ and offered to sell it to them.

 

 

Nothing like profiteering is there in modern America?

 

 

None of this equals the Rae Carruth murder of his pregnant girlfriend in Carolina, which got him a lifetime sentence. Surely not as bad as ex-Rams running back Lawrence Phillips, trying to kill people with his car, and then choking a cellmate, just prior to killing himself.

 

 

But it makes you wonder why Rice has had to pay the worst penalty of the clan of 2014?

 

 

As for the security guard, isn’t modern social media great in America these days? As for Ray Rice, one mistake ruined his career. Others got away with it. He got caught.

 

 

 

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2 Responses to “1-Man’s Opinion Column-Tuesday- “Just Asking-Ray Rice””

  1. Roger says:

    What is Kevin O’Connell’s role in Johnny Manziel’s development/problems ?? Was paid Brown’s QB coach, was no doubt told to be a 24/7 mentor and an affecting positive influence. . . . Hey, HACKSAW how much blame goes on O’Connell ???

    • Lee Hacksaw Hamilton says:

      Kevin worked on game plans and mechanics with QBs..not his job to baby-sit him…Manziel has deep rooted problem with leadership, abiding by rules, and discipline…..Has signficant alcohol issues….His own family has been critical of him…..Stories coming out of Texas A&M now are as bad as those that came out of Washington State in aftermath of Ryan Leaf issues….This is not on O’Connell, this is on Manziel and his choices.

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