Are the Ravens and the NFL trapped in a bubble of their own devising?
Do they really think anyone is fooled by their expressions of outrage in the matter of Ray Rice? First they slap his wrists. Then they ban him “indefinitely.” Officially motivated by “new” information, they have shown him the door.
When the world saw what the NFL allegedly did not see six months ago, Rice had to go instantly. Too much potential heat. Too much risk for the NFL “brand.”
In the bubble, you can throw Rice overboard and hope no one sees what’s happening. Outside the bubble, people say what the league did was all about money. Shocked! Shocked, they said, at the spectacle of Rice channeling Rocky in the elevator.
No one condones what Rice did. But he has seemed sincerely contrite since then. Now they say “new” evidence forced a new examination. But how new was it, really? How did his now-wife come to be unconscious on the floor of the elevator?
You can say “new” information from inside the bubble. Outside? Almost no one buys it.
So we have the usual course of events: the crime, the clumsy cover-up and the story that goes on and on.
Yet the league should worry. Violence and catastrophic injury seem inevitable in their sport. Some of us are turning away after lifetimes of intoxicating drama. Could things like Ricegate accelerate the turn-off?And now, with the big Steelers rivalry at hand once again, the Rice story and the questions it raised will be reviewed for the entire nation.
Not a pretty picture.