<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So, you are Roger Goodell.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: You are not actually Roger Goodell.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You just suspended Ray Rice for only two games for allegedly beating up his then-fianc\u00E9e (now wife), Janay Palmer.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: See first editor\u2019s note.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, as others have pointed out, you routinely suspend players for four games for testing positive for Adderall. You suspended quarterback Terrelle Pryor for five games, on the bizarre grounds that he would have missed five college games for violations of NCAA rules that have nothing to do with the NFL, which is sort of like collecting the fines on library books Pryor failed to return in high school. You suspended linebacker Von Miller for six games for trying to cheat on a drug test, and you tried to suspend Scott Fujita for three games for the Saints\u2019 bounty scandal, even though Fujita was later cleared of wrongdoing.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yet you only suspended Rice, who allegedly knocked his fianc\u00E9e out and dragged her out of an elevator in an Atlantic City Casino, for just two games.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Rice was not actually found guilty of anything.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wait. WHAT?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it\u2019s true: Ray Rice was not convicted. His case never even went to trial. He pleaded not guilty to a single count of third-degree aggravated assault and entered a diversionary pre-trial intervention program for first-time offenders.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This kind of fact tends to get lost in the modern media climate, especially on Twitter. We draw a line in the sand, jump to one side as quickly as possible, and scream that people on the other side are morons. The instinct is to say \u201CHE BEAT UP A WOMAN AND ONLY GOT SUSPENDED TWO GAMES\u201D and feel proud of ourselves. If anybody tries to dispute the point, or bring some nuance to the discussion, or (gasp!) understand both sides of the argument, that person gets shot down. In this case, that person is easily branded as supporting a domestic abuser.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Rice was not found guilty. Does this mean Rice was innocent? Hardly. He admitted in a tearful press conference that \u201CI failed miserably\u201D and \u201Cme and Janay wish we could take back 30 seconds of our life,\u201D and of course, there is that video online of him dragging her out of the elevator. His lawyers have said the video does not tell the full story. They may be right. But what it says is ugly.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And there was the disturbing scene in that tearful press conference in which Palmer said \u201CI do deeply regret the role I played in the incident that night.\u201D This led a lot of people to conclude she has taken on the role of the abused, blaming herself when she is not at fault.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still: We have a justice system for a reason. It is not perfect, but it\u2019s what we have. It is very possible that prosecutors thought Rice was guilty but did not think they could get a jury to convict him. (Rice and Palmer got married one day after he was indicted by a grand jury, allowing her to invoke spousal privilege and avoid testifying against him in a trial.) Nonetheless, this was the outcome of Rice\u2019s journey through the justice system.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now: If you were Roger Goodell, what would you do? Can you really suspend Rice for half a season or more based on what you think probably happened? Do you add a game because his fianc\u00E9e\u2019s comments at a press conference made you a little nauseous? Try putting this sentence in a press release:\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;We understand Ray pleaded not guilty, entered a program and the charges were dismissed, but that video on TMZ was just terrible.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, you could not do that. And if you suspended Rice for much longer than two games, he could take you to court, and it\u2019s not inconceivable that he would win. Rice has no known history of criminal behavior. He has never been in trouble with the league before. The NFL\u2019s Personal Conduct Policy states:\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CUnless the available facts clearly indicate egregious circumstances, significant bodily harm or risk to third parties, or an immediate and substantial risk to the integrity and reputation of the NFL, a first offense generally will not result in discipline until there has been a disposition of the proceeding (or until the investigation is complete in the case of noncriminal misconduct).\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The available facts, while apparently damning, are limited.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what did Goodell do? He suspended Rice for two games, the same suspension he levied on Ndamukong Suh when Suh stomped on Green Bay Packers lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith. The message seems to be: Beating a defenseless woman in a casino is the same as stomping on a player in pads during a game. But you can\u2019t suspend a man just to send a message. If you look at the facts of the case, and the policy Goodell is supposed to follow, he didn\u2019t have a lot of good options here.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goodell arrived in office in 2006 as part commissioner, part sheriff, promising to clean up the league. His efforts have been mixed and strange, from the unfair (the Fujita suspension) to the absurd (Pryor\u2019s suspension) to the justified. In recent years, he has become more measured in his discipline, possibly because former commissioner Paul Tagliabue overturned bounty-related suspensions, and maybe because he realizes this is not as simple as he once believed.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I understand why people are a little sick today, seeing Ray Rice suspended for only two games. Maybe Rice deserved worse, based on what he did -- but even today, we really don\u2019t know what he did, and unless Palmer says what happened, we may never know. If I were Roger Goodell, I probably would do exactly what he did. I wouldn\u2019t like it. But I would do it.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nfl/2014/07/24/nfl-commissioner-right-ray-rice-suspension>