Three Democrat senators sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell protesting the two-game suspension meted out to Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.
“We were dismayed to learn of the National Football League’s plainly inadequate remedy imposed on Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for hitting his then-fiancee hard enough to knock her unconscious and then dragging her out of an elevator,” Senators Tammy Baldwin (WI), Chris Murphy (CT), and Richard Blumenthal (CT) wrote the NFL commissioner. They urge the NFL and the Ravens to re-adjudicate the matter and issue a stiffer penalty.
The lawmakers don’t address the legal system’s response to the Atlantic City incident, which resulted in Rice avoiding any sentence of incarceration through a pre-trial diversion program. Janay Palmer, the victim of the elevator abuse, has since married the running back.
“We have to remain consistent,” Goodell told reporters on on Friday in response to criticism of the NFL’s handling of the matter. “We can’t just make up the discipline. It has be consistent with other cases, and it was in this matter.” Goodell points out that Rice does not have a history of lawbreaking or of allegations of domestic violence.
Rice earlier this week apologized for the incident, which he calls “the biggest mistake of my life.”