In breaking NFL news, former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice has won his appeal against his suspension and was reinstated with immediate affect. He is n ow a costless agent and eligible to sign with any team. The hearing was held in early November and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell testified, along with Rice and Ravens officials.
Rice had been suspended since September 8th after a video surfaced showing Rice knocking his fiancee (now his wife) unconscious in an elevator at an Atlantic City casino. Rice had initially been suspended for two games but outrage caused by the public disclosure of the entire incident led Goodell to suspend him indefinitely. The Ravens relaesed him that day, making him a costless agent once he was reinstated.
The league and Goodell tried to claim that Rice had not been truthful after the intial hearing and that they had no choice once the full video was released . Rice argued that his indefinite suspension was unfair because he had already been suspended, essentially double jeopardy in legal terms. Rumors also surfaced that the league had all the evidence including the full video from the very beginning but the league maintained that it did not and only acted when the new video came out.
Even though he can now sign with any team and play immediately it remains to be seen if that will happen. First of all it is late in the season and it would be difficult integrating him into a team. Second, whichever team does him will likely face a fair amount of backlash from fans and those who support anti-domestic violence causes. They see Rice as having received preferential treatment due to his celebrity status because he had the charges dropped by prosecutors when he agreed to enroll in a program for first time offenders. There may not be many teams, if any at all, willing to take the risk of signing him at this point in the season. The distraction caused by his signing may be too much for any team to want to take on, even next season.