There was a lot of money on the line, not to mention reputation when NFL player Ray Rice was suspended indefinitely for domestic violence. Rice was seen knocking out his then fiancée, Janay Palmer, in a vicious assault caught on surveillance video at an Atlantic City casino. The subsequent fallout from the tape brought the issue of domestic violence by NFL players to the national spotlight. Subsequently, Rice was suspended for two games while the NFL backtracked on statements claiming they did not know about the assault. After the media frenzy came to a head, the NFL suspended Rice indefinitely to which Rice appealed.
Rice claimed that the NFL was in possession of the video for more than a year and that he was being punished twice for the same incident. A hearing was held the earlier part of November before arbitrator Barbara S. Jones, a former U.S. District Court judge. Jones agreed with Rice and wrote in her decision, “Because Rice did not mislead the Commissioner and because there were no new facts on which the Commissioner could base his increased suspension, I find that the imposition of the indefinite suspension was arbitrary. I therefore vacate the second penalty imposed on Rice.”
Rice is now eligible to play in the NFL again, but he was released by the Baltimore Ravens in September. This makes Rice a free agent however; any team that is thinking about signing Rice will have to deal with negative publicity and protests surrounding his domestic assault.
