NFL Regular Season- Where Preseason hopes go to die...

[Reny of Storms End]

I definitely can't see any spitting. The quality's so poor I wouldn't be able to. I thought it was the quality of the video itself being poor, but if you can see spitting you're definitely seeing it better than me. I'm just on am iPad though.

Well the video quality certainly is poor, but Rice makes a spitting motion as Janay is walking past and that motion is what causes her to slap him.

[Rhom]

In football news... The Niners have cut LaMichael James.

Not so surprising now in the scheme of things, but a couple of years ago I was really excited about the acquisition. I thought his skill set would fit beautifully with Kaep, but for one reason or another it never worked.

[James Arryn]

Well the video quality certainly is poor, but Rice makes a spitting motion as Janay is walking past and that motion is what causes her to slap him.

Hmm. If it's not visible, I read that as just one of those stupid face-lunge things. She doesn't try to wipe her face or anything which people do pretty automatically when someone spits in their face.

I'll try it again later on a better 'puter.

[Kalbear]

I'm really sad about LMJ. I really hoped he'd be great and thought he'd be a stellar mixup for the 49ers, but they never really used him the way he can be used. They're shockingly uncreative with respect to their offensive playcalling at times. and honestly, he was always something of a liability at pass catching.

I hope for the best, but this might be the end of his career.

[James Arryn]

In football news... The Niners have cut LaMichael James.Not so surprising now in the scheme of things, but a couple of years ago I was really excited about the acquisition. I thought his skill set would fit beautifully with Kaep, but for one reason or another it never worked.

He just never worked. I was very excited when we drafted him, I love athletic/elusive quick twitch backs...kinda was one myself...but for w/e reason his skills just never translated to the field. Wonder if the Eagles will give him a shot.

[Maithanet]

Wonder if the Eagles will give him a shot.

Well, the Ravens have an opening for a shifty running back...

[Rockroi]

I think, for me, as a woman, the most DISGUSTING part of all of this (yes, I'm going Rockroi) besides the actual footage, which is fucking horrific to behold, is the fact that the Ravens had the victim APOLOGIZE for her role in the incident.

What the FUCK.

Never go full Rockroi.

I got a lot going on here but the major takeaways are:

1. I do not believe the NFL when they say they never saw the interior footage. Reports were very clear a few months ago that Goodell saw the interior elevator footage and that buttressed his decision; the argument was that what he saw supported a two-game suspension. According to both Peter KIng and Chris Mortenson - back in July - the interior footage showed an ugly scene where "she attacked him" (that's what Mortonson said) and that Ray hit her, hit her hard, she hit the railing and that KO'd her. This supported the idea/argument that Rice was only trying to defend himself against a wild, possibly out-of-control woman (maybe drunk) and that he tried protecting himself then pushed her away and she hit her head on the railing. After all, the argument went, no other explanation jibes with a two-game suspension. The lenient punishment seemed to be more adapted to a boarder-line judgment call.

2. That's not what the tape showed and that's not what happened. What happened was that they get into the elevator, and he basically corners her at the control panel. I know a lot has been made of the punch (for good reason), but the way Rice pushed into her, cornered her and basically seemed to be egging her on is such a big tell-tale sign that he was sporting for a fight; get her to act up so he could put her in her place. Anyway, when he has her in the corner, She seems to not like it, tries to push HIM away and ... he spits on her. At least it looks like he spits on her. She then really pushes him away, he pushes back, she gets very angry, tries to challenge him by walking right up to him and he caves the side of her head in. So hard that she goes from a standing position, to sideways into the railing.

3. He's almost certainly hit her before. He seemed to be egging her on to prompt a violent confrontation.

4. The two game suspension was wrong. It was highly questionable before, but now seeing the footage, its just absurd.

5. She married him after this; she went to bat for him with Goodell. And if that does not terrify fathers of girls everywhere, nothing will.

[Mack Kilimaro]

This whole thing has really driven home for me just how disgusting the NFL can be as an organization in a way that nothing has really done before.

It beggars belief that the league/Ravens are acting like this is the first they've seen of this footage. TMZ beat you to it, really? It makes me think that they thought they could get away with everything as long as the video never got out. Well, maybe it would have worked except the casino where it happened closed last week, and probably now someone's out of a job and doesn't really give a fuck about leaking the video. I wonder how much money they got for selling it to TMZ.

[DanteGabriel]

NFL Insiders just reported that the Ravens just terminated Rice's contract.

Too little, too late, shitbirds. Especially after that awful news conference at the beginning that was apparently staged just to make a domestic violence victim apologize publicly to the shitbag who punched her and then praise the puncher for being such a great guy when he's NOT decking his significant other.

Let's review Ozzie Newsome's reaction before they thought the tape would come out:

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Ozzie-Newsome-Feels-Good-About-Ray-Rices-Side-Of-The-Story/21032b71-7ade-4e57-bfcd-7c9519778f95

And let's review a team senior VP and the team owner talking about their beloved domestic abuser, before the tape came out:

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Byrne-Identity-I-Like-Ray-Rice/f618f957-e03f-4fc6-919e-638552b14c2b

Slimy pigfuckers. I feel bad for the sculpture artist in Baltimore who would've gotten the Rice commission in ten years or so if this inconvenient footage hadn't gotten out.

[trickster]

In other news, Robert Mathis done for the season

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11489313/robert-mathis-indianapolis-colts-miss-rest-season-tearing-achilles-tendon-workout

[DanteGabriel]

Oh look, the Shitbirds have gone back and deleted their official tweet about how Rice's wife regrets her role in getting punched in the face.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ravens-delete-ray-rice-wife-tweet

About right for this organization.

[Fiddler]

I think this whole summer/situation should lead to change.

1. Let Guidell run the league as the commish, but take the punishment aspect out of his hands. Form an impartial committee to decide punishments for offenders and set down guidelines for such offenders.

2. Make the punishment for domestic abuse steep.

3. Work with the players association to revamp the performance enhancing drug list (no reason for weed or "molly" to be on that list).

I think these three things really need to happen going forward. There is no reason that Rice only recieved 2 games before, but now he deserves indefineate suspension and cutting? That makes no sense. Should have been dealt with harshly early, especially since there was actual video, and not wait til the tape went public.

[stateofdissipation]

I think we should wait until we see a whole game from the Broncos to crown them AFC favorites... their revamped D gave up 17 second half points and seemed to wear down as the game went on.. Manning looked good... but there were way too many 3 and outs in the second half... Welker's absemce might explain some of that...

[fuseprime]

This whole Ray Rice things drives me crazy. It's absolutely disgusting that he hit a woman. I don't care if it was his fiance (now wife). We don't know if this was the first time this happened. My guess was that she was coerced to go along with the script after the events transpired.

What really drives me crazy is that this shit wasn't handled in February. What did the NFL, Ravens, and even the media think a man punching out a woman looks like? It's deplorable, and at least it's being dealt with now. First offense, in my opinion, should be an automatic one year suspension (AT LEAST), instead of the 8 game ban they have now.

[Kalbear]

Another reason that the Ray Rice thing is horrible. While crime rates for NFL players are largely similar to crime rates for fairly affluent people, there's a couple places where they stand out.

One is murder. That's small sample size.

The other is domestic violence. Compared to people in their affluence level - 8.4 incidents per 100,000 - the numbers are staggeringly high.

So thanks, Ray Rice - you have become the legitimate face of the NFL.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

Yeah. Sometimes I assume their legal team has coached them to be as indirect as possible to avoid future repercussions to open acknowledgment of blame, but it happens so much I think it's just become this really crappy habit of the way to make non-apology apologies.

I think there's also some fundamental attribution bias. When people do things they know is wrong, they tend to rationalize with all sorts reasons like I was tired, angry, in a bad mood, having a bad day... which may all be true but is irrelevant.

[Jaime L]

Too little, too late, shitbirds. Especially after that awful news conference at the beginning that was apparently staged just to make a domestic violence victim apologize publicly to the shitbag who punched her and then praise the puncher for being such a great guy when he's NOT decking his significant other.

Let's review Ozzie Newsome's reaction before they thought the tape would come out:

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Ozzie-Newsome-Feels-Good-About-Ray-Rices-Side-Of-The-Story/21032b71-7ade-4e57-bfcd-7c9519778f95

And let's review a team senior VP and the team owner talking about their beloved domestic abuser, before the tape came out:

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Byrne-Identity-I-Like-Ray-Rice/f618f957-e03f-4fc6-919e-638552b14c2b

Slimy pigfuckers. I feel bad for the sculpture artist in Baltimore who would've gotten the Rice commission in ten years or so if this inconvenient footage hadn't gotten out.

Don't forget John Harbaugh's original comments on it too:

“It’s not a big deal, it’s just part of the process,” Harbaugh said, via ESPN. “There are consequences when you make a mistake like that. I stand behind Ray. He’s a heck of a guy. He’s done everything right since. He makes a mistake, alright? He’s going to have to pay a consequence. I think that’s good for kids to understand it works that way. That’s how it works, that’s how it should be.”

It's kinda amazing everyone would just completely circle the wagons with regard to Rice with a ) not knowing what happened (trying to be charitable here) and b ) knowing that a videotape exists out there of what actually did happen. These videos always get released, How do they not know this before going down the unconditional support road? Hell it was ridiculous at the time with the video of him dragging her out of the elevator by her hair. A more nuanced response was the only possible approach you can take in that situation. Not doing so is colossal stupidity borne out of arrogance which, in fairness, is the NFL's m.o. these days. I suspect they cut him as much for the fact he lied to them as much as the PR hit. What he actually did was always a distant third on their list of concerns.

It also seems absurd bordering on not possible that Ray Rice received a standing ovation from those in attendance when he showed up at training camp.

[Ramsay B.]

I will have a sports headache by the end of this game.

[Fiddler]

Calvin is a beast out there.

Lions need to keep hammering and hammering and completely dominate this Giants team.

GO LIONS!

[James Arryn]

Don't forget John Harbaugh's original comments on it too:

It's kinda amazing everyone would just completely circle the wagons with regard to Rice with a ) not knowing what happened (trying to be charitable here) and b ) knowing that a videotape exists out there of what actually did happen. These videos always get released, How do they not know this before going down the unconditional support road? Hell it was ridiculous at the time with the video of him dragging her out of the elevator by her hair. A more nuanced response was the only possible approach you can take in that situation. Not doing so is colossal stupidity borne out of arrogance which, in fairness, is the NFL's m.o. these days. I suspect they cut him as much for the fact he lied to them as much as the PR hit. What he actually did was always a distant third on their list of concerns.

It also seems absurd bordering on not possible that Ray Rice received a standing ovation from those in attendance when he showed up at training camp.

But the situation was very traumatic for him. Especially when his fist happened to his fiance's face. Have some compassion, man.

So, my gf and I are cooking dinner, and she asks 'Did you hear about Ray Rice?'

Which discussion turned out that she had not heard about the 2nd video or anything, just the 'suspended indefinitely.'

And as I'm explaining it to her I am more and more realizing that my anger right now is almost entirely at the league. When I am telling my gf what the 2nd video shows, I realize more fully that, if I'm honest, nothing really happened that my imagination wouldn't have already semi-filled in, and I already had him down as an abusive scumbag, so...why was my anger so rejuvenated?

And it's the fucking NFL.

1) they HAD seen this when they gave him 2 games, way less than a slew of players are getting for relative trivialities.

2) in that they had seen this, not only are they lying, but they are now literally punishing Rice for...the video being leaked. Nothing else. There is not a single new piece of information in front of them about this today. They know exactly what they knew when 2 games happened.

But now we know, so now Rice is done because we know. The overwhelming hypocrisy, the fact that they are completely lying to us, and must know we know they're lying...

Okay, so part of my anger is illogically based on actually seeing it happen, but I know that's not logical, and anyways, I have known many abusive people in my lifetime, so scumbag = scumbag.

But the NFL is fucking ridiculous to me ATM. If I'm honest I'll eventually reduce this to a footnote, but that seems far away right now. When she comes upstairs I am showing my gf the new video, and I'm already in a bad mood about this shit.

Short version: why are people so crappy?