The inevitable news that the Baltimore Ravens were waiting for has finally come their way. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell handed down a two-game suspension to RB Ray Rice for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
Rice, a three-time pro-bowler, will now miss divisional games against the Cincinnati Bengals on September 7th and Pittsburgh Steelers on September 11th, according to BaltimoreSun.com. This means Rice’s pocket will be losing out on $470,588, equal to two-game checks.
On June 16th of this year, Goodell met with Rice and his wife, Janay at NFL headquarters in New York and questioned them about their February 15th altercation in Atlantic City, NJ. The details of the altercation had his then fiancée in the face, knocking her unconscious, claims for which she made.
Video footage of Rice and his unconscious fiancée exiting an elevator went viral immediately following the incident. Rice entered a pretrial intervention program that allowed him to avoid jail-time.
The two-game suspension comes as a shock to many around the league as Goodell is known as ruling with an iron fist in these sticky-situations. The video-footage that went viral was so ugly that most thought at least a four-game suspension would loom.
Rice, 27, endured a disappointing season in 2013 as he only rushed for 660 yards and four TD’s in 15 games, according to ProFootballReference.com. Bernard Pierce who played very-well while spelling Rice in 2013, will now assume the starting RB position until week-three.