For perhaps the first time in the nearly 19 years they’ve been here, the Ravens face a potentially sizable crack in how the public views their organization.
To some degree, the team is facing what seems to be the norm for NFL franchises during the offseason, namely, multiple instances of players running afoul of the law.
Running back Lorenzo Taliaferro was arrested during the Memorial Day weekend for allegedly breaking the window of a taxi in Williamsburg, VA. The arrest came two weeks after Taliaferro was taken in the fourth round of the NFL draft. That same weekend, two veterans, receiver Jacoby Jones and running back Bernard Pierce, were asked to leave an Ocean City nightclub after it was alleged they got too intoxicated to stay.
However, the big blemish to the Ravens’ image may come in how they’ve handled the case of their star running back Ray Rice and his domestic violence charges.
Rice and his then-fiancee Janay Palmer, were each charged by Atlantic City police in an incident in which video showed Rice dumping Palmer’s unconscious body on the floor outside an elevator. Rice was charged with aggravated assault against Palmer, whom he subsequently married. New Jersey prosecutors agreed to allow Rice to enter a pretrial intervention program that would eliminate the possibility of jail time and eventually clear his record.
While Rice’s initial alleged conduct has drawn comment, he came in for additional criticism for his appearance before the media on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, a day when few people pay attention to the news.
Rice took no questions from the media and stumbled through a ham-handed statement in which, among other things, “Failure is not getting knocked down, it’s not getting up." It was a stunningly oblivious comment to make considering there was video of the woman he loves sprawled out on the floor, apparently placed there by his own hand.
Rice apologized to team owner Steve Bisciotti, general manager Ozzie Newsome and head coach John Harbaugh. But the words “I’m sorry” never came out of Rice’s mouth aimed at his now wife. It fell to Janay Rice to express regret for her role in the incident, which is a lot like a fly apologizing for splattering on your windshield.
It was bad enough that the Ravens seemed to sanction Rice’s conduct by allowing him to have the pseudo-apology at the team’s training facility. But then, to compound the mistakes, the team’s official Twitter account played up Janay Rice’s apology, seemingly reinforcing the idea that she was somehow at fault for ending up on the floor of a casino.
Ray Rice will almost certainly draw an NFL suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. Speculation seems to be that he will have to miss the first three games, but another game or two or three would send a clearer message that domestic violence won’t be tolerated.
And while the Ravens are busy writing checks to build high school football stadiums, a seven-digit contribution to battered women’s facilities would go a long way towards showing that they care about their female fans as much as the men.
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