The Ray Rice Saga Does Not Cancel Thursday's Game
By Kevin Ross II
With the start of the 2014 season upon us, many in the city of Baltimore hoped that the tremendous scrutiny placed on Ray Rice would be averted as people directed their eyes on actual football games. For about a half a day that notion was true, but then Ray Rice and his antics re-appeared in a major way on Monday morning, with all new video footage.
Head Coach Jim Harbaugh commented on the newly released video, “It’s something we saw for the first time today – all of us – and it changed things, of course. It made things a little bit different.”
With the perception of Rice now being a little bit different, this led to the Ravens abruptly firing Rice, and Rice was also suspended indefinitely from the NFL. This also led to a media carnival in Baltimore where everyone wanted to talk about the situation. But what gets quickly lost in the shuffle is the fact that the Ravens have a quick turnaround as they face the Steelers on Thursday night football.
So while the Steelers are focusing on the Ravens, Baltimore is holding internal discussions, press conferences, and team meetings to discuss Ray Rice. Everyone from the top to the bottom of the franchise is carrying the weight of Ray Rice on their shoulders, and Rice is a big man. His teammates not only miss him as a friend, but desperately want Rice to get the help that he needs to improve his life. Teammate Chris Canty spoke freely about his ex-teammate, “Domestic violence is not just a women’s issue – it takes all of us. It’s a sad day. We have to send our prayers to Ray and Janay, and their family. What they’re going through [during] this ordeal, I couldn’t imagine. It was a deplorable act – no question. He made a terrible error in judgment. But I would just ask everyone to be cognizant of the fact that it’s easier to point a finger of blame rather than extend a hand of help, and it’s clear that they need help with what they’re going through.”
With Canty and other Ravens speaking with such heavy hearts today, how can any of them concentrate on football? It’s easy to conclude that the Ravens will be at a disadvantage when they face a surprisingly re-vamped and healthy Pittsburgh team. The Steelers are coming off of a nail-biter of a game against Cleveland, where they displayed a split personality. During the first half against the Browns, the Steelers looked as if they were one of the very best teams in the entire league. And in the second half they looked like the Washington Redskins, Oakland Raiders, or any other bottom feeder team.
But what you can take from the Steelers week one performance is the fact that big Ben Roethlisberger is back healthy, and the Steelers have surrounded him with a plethora of speedy play-makers. Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, and Markus Wheaton all are healthy and all have game changing capabilities.
Cleveland was down 27-3 but they got back in the game because they were committed to running the football, and they exposed the Pittsburgh defense. They finished the game with 183 rushing yards and they may have provided an early season blueprint for defeating this Steelers team. The bottom line is, Baltimore will have to dedicate themselves to running the football if they want to be victorious on Thursday night. And the irony to this is, they probably could’ve used Ray Rice in this one.
For more Ravens news and updates, visit Ravens Central.
Kevin Ross is a freelance writer covering all things Washington Redskins. His work can be found on Examiner.com.
