Colin Dunlap: Time To Fight Back Against Ray Rice, Ravens Fans
What a small man Ray Rice is.
I already thought this, but think it even more this Monday morning after seeing a video posted by TMZ in which Rice, the Baltimore Ravens' running back, is purportedly shown punching his then-fiancée (now wife) Janay Palmer in the face back in February in an Atlantic City casino elevator.
We had, up until now, seen an aftermath video and been made to connect dots ourselves.
Now they have been connected and seeing that video of Palmer taking that punch makes the NFL look all the more silly for imposing a mere two-game suspension upon Rice. The league did, however, revamp policies against domestic violence after the incident, but Rice's occurrence happened before that --- and most likely triggered the harsher penalties --- so that's why his isn't as severe.
My thoughts: Forget football, Ray Rice should be in a correctional facility.
But I have something else, as each time I watch that video I just get more mad and more mad …
Where are the women's groups?
Where are the marches, the protests and the "I'm mad as hell this guy represents our city" rallies down in Baltimore?
Perhaps I just missed them. Maybe they happened, but perhaps I just missed them.
I'm a man and all I do is digest the NFL as a consumer and use it for fodder for the industry that I'm in --- and seeing this video makes me sicker than sick. Really, it does make me madder than hell that Rice will miss this week's game against the Steelers and then get right back at it.
That's why I couldn't imagine being a Ravens fan who is a woman. One of those ladies who plops down thousands of dollars for season tickets or slaps on the counter a bunch of money for jerseys or other memorabilia.
Looking at it from your vantage, now that you have seen the full video, how can you take this one sitting down?
How can you watch that video and not just be sick, but be compelled to be called into action?
It's on you now.
We all know what Ray Rice is. He's a scumbag, a woman-batterer and a downright despicable and loathsome human --- that isn't up for debate.
What are you going to do, though? You going to just show up on Thursday night against the Steelers and cheer your head off and continue to work under the guise that you can't make a difference or that the Rice thing is a separate issue from the current team playing?
I'm here you tell you, if you do that, you are failing yourself and also Janay Palmer, who was made to wear that punch straight across the face in that elevator.
What you need to do --- you owe it to yourself and other women --- is to cause a stir. Fight back.
Organize a march.
Have a vigil, a protest or a very, very public display of demonstration against Ray Rice.
Hell, the least you could do is write Ravens owner Stephen Bisciotti and/or president Richard Cass a letter and tell them they are employing a thug to represent their team and your city and you want him gone.
Do you have the courage to do that after seeing this last video? Because you should.
Sometimes we need to pump the brakes and realize this is just a sport, just a bunch of men out there running around for a few hours on a playing surface and all that we've made it into as consumers isn't supposed to trump real life.
This is one of those times.
Seeing Janay Palmer get whacked across the face really woke me up when I saw that video this morning.
But I'm not the one who can truly make a difference. Ravens fans are --- especially the ones who are women.
Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weeknights from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can e-mail him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.
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