NFL commissioner Roger Goodell defended the league's decision to suspend Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for two games as punishment for Rice's domestic violence incident. Goodell said Rice's punishment was consistent with the NFL's discipline policy based on the facts of the case.
The NFL's two-game ban issued to Rice sparked an outcry from those who felt the punishment was too lenient. Goodell, though, thought the punishment fit the crime when all the facts were taken into account.
"We have a very firm policy that domestic violence is not acceptable in the NFL, and there are consequences for that," Goodell told the media Friday, via ESPN. "Obviously, when we are going through the process of evaluating an issue and whether there will be discipline, you look at all of the facts that are available to us. ...
"We have to remain consistent. We can't just make up the discipline. It has to be consistent with other cases, and it was in this matter."
Goodell then pointed to Rice's otherwise clean record.
"If it's their first offense, someone who has had a strong background of being very responsible in the community and doing the right things and not violating either policies or anything else that would reflect poorly on the NFL, then we take that into account," Goodell said. "When there's a pattern, we also take that into account on the other side. ...
"I take into account all of the information before I make a decision on what the discipline will be. In this case, there was no discipline by the criminal justice system. They put him in that diversionary program, and I had seen Ray after that. I had the opportunity to hear from him, hear from his wife and hear from other people that he had brought into the hearing process, and I put all of that together to make a decision."
Rice was arrested Feb. 15 in Atlantic City after allegedly striking and knocking out his then-fiancée Janay Palmer in a hotel elevator. Video of Rice dragging his unconscious fiancée out of the elevator then surfaced online.
Rice, who pleaded not guilty to a third-degree aggravated assault charge, avoided trial by going into a pretrial intervention program. He has since married Palmer and vowed to become the spokesperson for domestic violence.
In addition to the two-game suspension, the NFL fined him three game checks.
