You saw what NFL should’ve seen

The tweet was one of thousands on Monday that offered an opinion about a woman beater/running back being released from his NFL team and suspended by the league indefinitely.

It read: “The Ravens didn’t release Ray Rice when they saw this video. They released Ray Rice when YOU saw this video. Remember that.”

The author makes a significant point about who should and shouldn’t be commended in the wake of Rice being banished from a league that should never again open its doors to him, meaning don’t for a second today offer even a wink of praise to the NFL or its franchise in Baltimore for its actions following the release of a video showing Rice knocking out his then-fiancee in an elevator.

They’re just as culpable, down to the very last stinking, deceitful one of them.

We should direct any applause toward TMZ Sports, which produced for the public the video that confirmed a majority opinion in July: That the two-game suspension handed down on Rice by Roger Goodell was a ridiculous and disturbing response by an NFL commissioner who in 2012 promised his league would take a tough stand against any domestic violence arrests.

Some promise. Some tough stand.

We learned officially Monday that in Rice you have an animal of a human being, who seemed almost comfortable in his despicable actions when knocking out his now wife and dragging her from that elevator. He should be on trial for his freedom today, not wondering how he might talk his way back into another contract worth millions of dollars and a league that failed to truly hold him accountable for his actions until, well, YOU saw the video.

TMZ is in the business of making money and whether or not it had possession of the video for some time (which it denies) and waited until the season’s first week to release it for maximum exposure is a meaningless sidebar to the most important point: That this should not insinuate a finality to the Rice story, but merely a beginning to countless unanswered questions, some of whose resolutions could lead to a historic shakeup in the NFL.

Important questions. Critical ones.

Those which will undoubtedly be chased for answers by many in the coming days and weeks and months.

Questions like ...

Was this one big, fat, disgusting cover-up by the NFL, Ravens and the county prosecutor’s office in Atlantic City, where the woman beater threw his left hook, to go easy on an NFL star? The league insists it hadn’t seen the most recent and damaging video until Monday. The prosecutor’s office, which offered Rice a deal that will have him avoid jail time, wouldn’t say whether it had given Goodell’s office a copy.

TMZ managed to get one. Rice and his attorneys had one. But a billion-dollar enterprise like the NFL couldn’t obtain a copy and, if not, didn’t demand of Rice to produce the video before deciding his punishment?

How incredibly irresponsible is that?

If it is proven he viewed the tape before determining two games was a proper suspension, Goodell should be fired immediately. So too should anyone in his office who viewed that tape before Monday or knew of its contents and supported the farce of a two-game suspension.

In essence, has everyone been lying the entire time?

Questions like ...

What does Baltimore’s embarrassing initial response to the woman beater’s actions, including general manager Ozzie Newsome saying a different account of what happened could surface, implying Rice’s wife might somehow have deserved being hit, say about the lack of integrity that exists within the walls of an NFL team’s front office and locker room? Newsome went on to tweet praise for the league for its “thorough process when investigating the incident.”

Here’s a question: How big a fool is Newsome?

What does it say about ownership when the only statement Monday came from head coach John Harbaugh, whose ignorance (arrogance) included calling Rice a “good guy” when the suspension was announced while also championing the player’s character? How vile a person is the woman beater when you consider Rice sat at news conference following the announcement of his suspension and actually allowed his wife, Janay, to apologize for her part in the incident, something that holds no validity now that the video and truth have been released?

She played no part. He knocked her out. Drug her out. Kicked her.

Pulled her around like a child might a rag doll.

Questions like ...

What are we to make of the man who in July said this: “I know that’s not who I am. That’s not who my mom raised me to be. I let her down, I let my wife down, I let my daughter down. I let my wife’s parents down. I let the whole Baltimore community down. I let my teammates down. I let so many people down because of 30 seconds of my life that I know I can’t take back.”

We can make of him this: Ray Rice is an abuser of women, a reprehensible tag to own.

What we can make of Roger Goodell and all those who also might have enabled Rice or possibly tried to cover up the truth about this disgraceful act will, hopefully, become much clearer in the days and weeks and months ahead.

We will know for just one reason: Finally, YOU saw the video.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN 1100 and 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.