SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Monday, October 27, 2014 7
Sports and Real Life
What the Experience of One Sports Journalist Can Tell Us
About Media in Canada
O
rob hamilton › staff writer
n Februa r y 15 t h 2014 ,
Baltimore Ravens running
back Ray Rice punched his
fiancée in the head in the
elevator of an Atlantic City casino, knocking her unconscious. The casino’s cameras captured the incident, the details of
which became known to the Ravens mere
hours later. Sometime thereafter, the
National Football League also became
aware of Rice’s actions and the existence
of the videos.
Precisely when the league came to know about the
incident has engendered considerable controversy.
In short, the league gave Rice a laughably tepid twogame suspension, after which video of the incident
surfaced publicly. The league then went into damage-control mode, blaming Rice for not being forthcoming with them about the contents of the videos,
absolving themselves of responsibility. Subsequent
reporting, however, cast these claims into serious
doubt. It has become clear that both the team and the
league knew the true nature of the incident before
Rice’s disciplinary hearing and before the videos
became public. Despite this, NFL commissioner Roger
Goodell, in a post hoc attempt to justify the league’s
insipid response and perfidio